Say Ahhh!
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Back-to-School Season is Key to Reconnecting Kids to Health Coverage
More than 5 million children have lost Medicaid coverage since states began the process of unwinding the pandemic continuous coverage protection. And recently released data from the National Health Insurance Survey (NHIS) for the first quarter of 2024 adds to our concerns that children are losing access to the health care they need to succeed.…
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New Georgetown Center on Health Insurance Reforms Report Examines State Reforms of Prior Authorization
By Georgetown University Center on Health Insurance Reforms Faculty Health insurers’ use of prior authorization – a medical management tool requiring providers to seek the insurer’s approval before their patient receives a healthcare item or service – appears to be on the rise. While providers and patients raise concerns that prior authorization can inhibit patient…
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Birth Centers Offer Potential to Transform Maternity Care Through Community-Led Approaches that Focus on Families of Color
Last month the Commonwealth Fund highlighted the role of freestanding birth centers in Community-Led Approach to Transforming Maternity Care. Freestanding birth centers, which use a midwifery and wellness model, provide a choice for families to deliver outside of a hospital or their home. The U.S. hosts 415 freestanding birth centers in 40 states and Washington,…
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Medicaid Managed Care: Results of the PHE Unwinding for the Big Five in Q2 2024
The Q2 2024 earnings reports for the “Big Five” Medicaid managed care companies are in. They tell us that the PHE unwinding is winding down, but it’s still driving declines in Medicaid enrollment for the companies as a group. Here are the numbers. For the fifth consecutive quarter, beginning with Q2 2023, Medicaid enrollment for…
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Prominent Conservative/GOP Plans Share Common Priority: Medicaid Block Grants and Per Capita Caps
The Project 2025 blueprint, the fiscal year 2025 Republican Study Committee budget plan, and the fiscal year 2025 House budget resolution all propose draconian Medicaid cuts, with a centerpiece of capping and cutting federal Medicaid funding through block grants and/or per capita caps. Together, they signal that radically restructuring Medicaid would likely be a high…
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Community-Based Assistance Programs Support Applicants Where They Live and are a Gold Standard for Outreach
In this final installment of our series on Medicaid and CHIP outreach, we look at community-based assistance programs and resources in each state. Personalized assistance is critical to helping individuals and families find and access support to navigate confusing processes. CCF’s state outreach snapshot found state-supported outreach assistance programs in 30 states. Most, states with…
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GAO Releases Report on Federal Oversight and the Unwinding
There are many lessons to be learned from the unwinding, but among the top items on the list is the discovery that many states are not following federal renewal regulations that have been in place for more than a decade. Noting that, the Government Accountability Office (GOA) has released a report entitled: “Medicaid: Federal Oversight…
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This Year’s House Republican Budget Resolution Also Includes Severe Medicaid Cuts
While Medicaid continues to fly beneath the radar as an election issue, it is increasingly clear that the results of this fall’s federal elections will determine whether Medicaid will be at serious threat of deep and damaging cuts next year. I have previously written about the severe Medicaid cuts proposed in the Project 2025 blueprint…
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Congratulations to CCF’s 2024 Bulldogs of the Year
Every year at our annual conference we recognize the achievements of leaders in the health policy community by bestowing Georgetown CCF Bulldog Awards. This year we awarded Bulldog Awards to two state partners and another special lifetime achievement award to one of our founders. Linda Dixon: The first Bulldog was awarded to Attorney Linda Dixon,…
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Medicaid Drug Rebate Program News and Notes, 2024 Edition
Periodically I write up news on the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program (MDRP) and here’s another (albeit overdue) edition highlighting some recent MDRP policy developments: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will not finalize its proposal to require manufacturers to “stack” discounts when determining best price under the MDRP. The best price requirement, which…
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Loper Bright Decision Will Collapse on Itself, Policy Evidence is More Important than Ever Before in Driving Progress
We blogged recently about the Supreme Court’s historic power grab in the Loper Bright case, which turned agency law on its head by overturning the Chevron case, the cornerstone of modern agency law. In Loper Bright, the Supreme Court’s clear intention is to weaken federal agencies, which is readily apparent in the decision itself and,…
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Tennessee to Begin Providing Diapers for Children Under Age 2 in Medicaid
Following CMS approval of its 1115 demonstration amendment earlier this year, Tennessee is set to begin covering diapers as a Medicaid benefit on August 7th. All children under age two enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP (known as TennCare and CoverKids, respectively) will be eligible to receive up to 100 diapers per month as a covered…
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What to expect from Census data this fall on Child/Adult Coverage Levels?
As readers of SayAhhh! know, Georgetown CCF does an annual report on children’s coverage every fall using the most recent data from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS), which is typically released in September. This year, the 2023 data will be released on September 12th; the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey (CPS) Annual Social…
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Transparency in Medicaid Managed Care: CMS Posts the MCPARs
There’s been a startling—but VERY welcome—development in the long-running MCPAR saga. On July 15, CMCS posted on its medicaid.gov the first three tranches of Managed Care Program Annual Reports (MCPARs) submitted by state Medicaid agencies for performance year 2023. The agency promises to post the remaining tranche for performance year 2023 in October, with quarterly…
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Shades of Blue Project Making Shift Happen for Black Maternal Mental Health
Black Maternal Mental Health Week, created by Shades of Blue Project founder Kay Matthews, is celebrated annually from July 19-25. Every year the Shades of Blue Project hosts their Black Maternal Mental Health Summit in Houston, TX during Black Maternal Mental Health Week. The theme of this year’s Black Maternal Mental Health is the Art…
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Another Sign That Trump 2 Will Target Medicaid for Deep, Damaging Cuts
What would a second Trump Administration have in store for Medicaid? The Project 2025 blueprint includes truly draconian cuts just like the House Republican Study Committee budget plan does. Now, a new report from the Paragon Institute provides yet another sign that Medicaid will be targeted – it recommends deep and damaging cuts in federal…
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States Revised Data Show Mixed Outcomes for Pending Renewals but Disenrollment for Procedural Reasons Still High
We have previously called attention to the large share of pending renewals in many states, which can be an indication that a state is not able to keep up with the workload. However, some states specifically chose to extend renewal due dates out an extra month or two to conduct more targeted outreach; those renewals…
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Medicaid and CHIP Outreach Snapshot Blog Series
Earlier this year, CCF published a snapshot of state Medicaid and CHIP outreach activities. The report provides an analysis of state-provided outreach resources and enrollment assistance. This blog series highlights good examples of state outreach and enrollment efforts and identifies areas that need improvement. Read the snapshot report Read the introductory blog Read the blog on social media…
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Language Supports Are an Area for Improvement for Medicaid and CHIP Agency Websites
This installment of our series about our outreach snapshot tackles the most challenging aspect of our research assessing the availability of language and accessibility supports on state websites. The wide variation and often confusing steps to access language assistance tools made capturing this section of the snapshot particularly difficult. We’ll dive in further here to…
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What Data Do We Have on the 988 Mental Health Crisis Call Line?
We wrote about the 988 crisis line on Say Ahhh! shortly after its launch in 2022. Two years into implementation, we’d like to revisit the crisis line to see where things stand. As a refresher, 988 was designated as the new number for the national mental health crisis hotline, replacing the previous 10-digit number, by…
