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  • Proposed Medicaid and CHIP Eligibility Rule Overhaul Back on the Docket at OMB

    Tricia Brooks

    In a speech to the National Association of Medicaid Directors last November, Administrator Seema Verma announced that CMS would be overhauling regulations to tighten the standards for eligibility verification in Medicaid and CHIP. For many months, the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) was listed on the regulatory review dashboard at the Office of Information and…

  • How much will COVID-19 drive up uninsured numbers? New report underscores how hard it is to know

    Joan Alker

    The year 2020 is certainly going to be one to remember in the history books. The current recession associated with the pandemic is undoubtedly going to result in more people enrolling in public coverage and, sadly, will also drive up the uninsured rate in the U.S (especially in states that have not expanded Medicaid). But…

  • New CCF Issue Brief on How Medicaid Block Grants and Per Capita Caps Would Harm State Funding of K-12 Education

    Edwin Park

    Today, we released a new issue brief focusing on how radically restructuring federal financing of the Medicaid program by converting it to a block grant or a per capita cap would impose large, negative pressures on state budgets.  That, in turn, could lead to significant reductions in state funding of K-12 education, which would result…

  • CCF Comments to Trump Administration Medicaid Drug Rebate Rule

    Edwin Park

    CCF has submitted public comments to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on the proposed Medicaid drug rebate rule which, among other things, would change how drug manufacturers report “best price” under the effective Medicaid Drug Rebate Program. As I have explained, the proposed rule’s best price reporting changes are intended to facilitate…

  • Medicaid Enrollment Increases Show Surprisingly Wide Variability Among States

    Joan Alker

    We’ve continued to look at state administrative data on Medicaid enrollment changes, and we are seeing curious differences among 22 states that have posted May enrollment data. Our baseline for Medicaid enrollment data is February since that is the last month before the pandemic really got going and the Medicaid disenrollment freeze became effective in…

  • New Report Finds Chilling Effect, Avoidance of Health Care Services Among Immigrant Families

    Kelly Whitener

    As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc across the US, public health experts have emphasized the disparate impact the virus is having on certain groups – those over 65 years old (especially in congregate care settings), those with underlying health conditions, and American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN), Black, and Latino communities. Immigrants are also disproportionately…

  • Five Steps States Can Take to Address Inequities of Health Crisis

    CCFadmin

    In May, Tekisha Dwan Everette and Karen Siegel from Health Equity Solutions released an article titled, “Five Key Questions State Health Officials Can Ask Right Now to Advance Health Equity During COVID-19 Response Efforts.” Preliminary state COVID-19 data disaggregated by race, geography and gender shows significant disparities in care and infection rates. These disparities are…

  • Oklahoma Voters Approve Constitutional Amendment to Expand Medicaid

    Adam Searing

    Oklahoma voters took a historic step and nudged their state forward toward becoming the 38th in the nation (including Washington, DC) to provide residents more affordable health insurance through their Medicaid program. The constitutional amendment passed by voters requires the state to open the doors to coverage no later than July 1, 2021. State leaders…

  • Health and Racial Disparities for Babies, Mothers Need Focused Attention, New Report Finds

    Maggie Clark

    As we’re increasingly learning, the experience of preconception, prenatal, birth, and postpartum health for moms flows directly to their infants, setting up the health status of the young family in the critical first years of life. This is why ZERO TO THREE’s State of Babies report this year calls special attention to hurdles faced by…

  • CMS Proposes Medicaid Drug Rebate Changes to Facilitate Commercial Adoption of Value-Based Purchasing Arrangements

    Edwin Park

    On June 19, 2020, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a proposed rule to change how drug manufacturers would report prices for purposes of the “best price” requirement under the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program (MDRP), among other modifications to the rebate program and to Medicaid coverage of outpatient prescription drugs.  The intent…

  • DACA is here to stay… for now

    Kelly Whitener

    Today, the Supreme Court rejected the Trump Administration’s decision to terminate Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), finding that the move was a violation of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) because it was arbitrary and capricious. (This may sound familiar – it’s the same problem the Administration has faced in the litigation surrounding Medicaid work…

  • Medicaid Enrollment Appears to be Accelerating

    Joan Alker

    [Editor’s Note: For updated enrollment numbers, see “Medicaid Enrollment Increases Show Surprisingly Wide Variability Among States“.] We’ve been keeping a sharp eye on available state data on Medicaid enrollment as the number of Americans filing unemployment claims continues to rise at a historic pace. Medicaid enrollment is closely tied to the economic circumstances of the…

  • Oklahoma’s Medicaid Expansion Debate Rollercoaster

    Adam Searing

    On June 30, Oklahoma voters will have a chance to require their state to expand affordable health coverage through expanding Medicaid. This would follow the lead of 37 other states (including DC) that have already expanded the program to cover more working adults since 2014. No state has gone back on its expansion decision and…

  • Medicaid Work Requirements in the Time of Unemployment

    Allexa Gardner

    Between March 1 and June 6, a total of 44.5 million Americans filed initial claims for unemployment insurance.  These massive job losses will result in a dramatic increase in the number of Americans without health insurance coverage, threatening the ability of unemployed Americans to afford needed care for themselves and their families during the COVID-19…

  • Rural Disparities, Racial Disparities, and Maternal Health Crisis Call Out for Solutions

    Maggie Clark

    Maternal health access and care were already in crisis before COVID-19, and the pandemic has further laid bare the racial and geographic disparities experienced by pregnant women and new mothers across the country. Last month we submitted comments in response to CMS’s request for information on improving access and quality of maternal health in rural…

  • Opportunities for Supporting Children and Families through Pediatric Primary Care in the Time of COVID-19

    CCFadmin

    The COVID-19 pandemic is causing serious health and economic consequences on families, children, and communities and is threatening the viability of the health care delivery system. While we can’t know the lasting consequences of the unprecedented stress confronting families, it is likely to have detrimental, lasting effects on the social and emotional health of our…

  • Confronting Maternal Mortality Crisis: New Resources Track State Progress on Extending Medicaid Postpartum Coverage

    Elisabeth Wright Burak

    Before the COVID-19 pandemic, addressing the maternal mortality crisis was among the highest policy changes on the priority list for state lawmakers and health officials. COVID-19 has further exposed the fault lines that create health disparities between racial, ethnic, income, and other groups. As the virus has spread, it is communities of color, low-income communities…

  • We Need to Name it: Racism is a Public Health Crisis

    Elisabeth Wright Burak

    Our country boils over in tension about the inaction of our leaders to address (among other things) the clear police brutality and racism that has led to the murder of Black Americans, most recently George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. We were already witnessing the COVID-19 pandemic further expose the fault lines within our health system…

  • COVID-19 and Child Welfare

    Kelly Whitener

    We’ve written a lot in the past few months about the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on Medicaid and CHIP. We’ve also written about the devastating impact of the pandemic on the economy and state budgets. Unfortunately, the devastation doesn’t stop there. Today, we invited two of our partners at the Children’s Defense Fund, Stefanie…