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Say Ahhh!

  • What South Dakota’s Medicaid Waiver Application Doesn’t Tell You

    Joan Alker

    South Dakota is in the process of applying for a Section 1115 waiver that will allow it to impose a work requirement on very poor parents in two counties, Minnehaha and Pennington, for five years, with the option to expand to other counties.  The state Medicaid agency posted the application for public comment on May…

  • Federal Investment in Children: Why Capping Medicaid Would Make a Bad Situation Worse

    Andy Schneider

    Not that you needed another reason that capping federal Medicaid payments to states would be an unmitigated disaster for children and families.  But since the proposal is alive and well in some quarters—notably the President’ FY 2019 Budget—it’s worth marshaling as many as possible.  Here’s another one, from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. The…

  • Incentivizing Healthy Behaviors in Medicaid is Hard To Do

    Joan Alker

    A new report from researchers from Duke University sparked my interest as I have not delved into the recent research on this issue for some time. Some years ago, I looked closely at Florida’s efforts in this regard which were ineffective and administratively costly.  Duke’s new comprehensive study concluded that “We do not have enough…

  • “Pain & Profit:” How Not to Do Medicaid Managed Care

    Andy Schneider

    We know that CMS Administrator Seema Verma doesn’t think Medicaid should cover “able-bodied” adults. But she does believe that coverage of the “society’s most vulnerable citizens” is the right thing for Medicaid to do.  In her major policy address to state Medicaid directors last November, she opened with the stories of Richard, a para-pelagic, and…

  • New Medicare Trustees Report Continues to Show Greater Effectiveness of Medicaid Drug Rebate Program Compared to Medicare Part D

    Edwin Park

    As I’ve previously written, the Medicaid drug rebate program is very effective.  It requires drug manufacturers to provide sizable rebates that significantly lower federal and state Medicaid prescription drug costs while ensuring access to needed medications for tens of millions of low-income beneficiaries. Last week, the Medicare Trustees issued their latest annual report on the…

  • Disparities exist in children’s coverage by race/ethnicity, income and maternal health

    Karina Wagnerman

    [Editor’s Note: For the most up-to-date data on children’ health coverage by race and ethnicity, see our current snapshot.] CCF recently updated our Snapshot of Children’s Coverage by Race and Ethnicity. The updated fact sheet includes the percentage of children residing in each state by race and ethnicity and the percentage of children covered by…

  • Medicaid Scorecard Misses the Mark on State and Federal Accountability

    Tricia Brooks

    With a lot of fanfare but not much input from experts and stakeholders, CMS revealed its new “Medicaid scorecard” that received mixed reviews this week. CMS Administrator Seema Verma’s reluctance to talk about how the scorecard may be used in the future added suspense to speculation about the potential for CMS to use the tool…

  • New Federal CHIP Law Will Protect Florida’s Children

    Joan Alker

    The Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) is extremely important to Florida as it helps about 345,000 Florida children get the health care they need to support their healthy development and succeed in school. CHIP has also worked hand-in-hand with Medicaid to reduce Florida’s child uninsured rate to an all time low of 6.2 percent in…

  • South Carolina’s Medicaid Proposal Will Harm Children and Families

    Joan Alker

    South Carolina is the latest state to consider imposing a work requirement on parents receiving Medicaid. While there’s no formal proposal yet, officials have outlined their plans in a concept paper that raises as many questions as it answers. In a report we released today, we outline the problems with imposing a work requirement in…

  • Congress Proposes Fix to Provide Medicaid for Former Foster Youth Up to Age 26

    Tricia Brooks

    At long last, a fix in the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid coverage for former foster youth up to age 26 is back on the table in Congress. I last wrote about this issue almost three years ago, so it has taken far too long for Congress to correct a technical error in the drafting of…

  • Family Separation at Border Exposes Children to Potentially Irreparable Harm

    Kelly Whitener

    Recently, the Administration announced a change in immigration policy that has resulted in at least 700 children being separated from their parents at the US-Mexico border since October 1. Historically, crossing the border illegally was considered a civil offense and parents were able to stay with their children while legal proceedings were carried out (for…

  • Why Virginia Expanded Medicaid: Five Key Reasons

    Adam Searing

    Virginia decided today to expand Medicaid, which will allow the state to start to cover approximately 400,000 people who are unable to afford health plans yet too poor to get tax credit subsidies to buy insurance. This is a significant win for Virginians and for bipartisan cooperation in an increasingly partisan age as a newly-elected…

  • A Conversation on Meaningful Family Engagement, from Clinical Care to Health Policy

    CCFadmin

    For families of children who have complex medical conditions, equal partnership in multiple levels of care is essential to positive outcomes for their children. A recent article Families of Children With Medical Complexity: A View From the Front Lines provides an overview of care management from the perspective of parents who have children with complex…

  • Research Update: Uninsured Rate for Adults in Non-Expansion States Continues to Increase, Expanding Medicaid Could Reverse The Trend

    Karina Wagnerman

    Readers of SayAhhh! may have noticed the press coverage about the uninsured rate holding steady through 2017. While it is true that progress reducing the rate of uninsured children and the overall population has effectively stalled, there are some groups lagging behind. This week, I am reading studies about (1) the growing gap in the…

  • CHIP Rescissions – Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should

    Kelly Whitener

    Two weeks ago, the Administration revealed its budget rescission proposal – $15 billion in rescissions, almost half of which would come from CHIP. Joan Alker wrote about the proposal and its implications, including an update after CBO weighed in later in the week to say that the rescissions “would not affect outlays or the number…

  • Trump Administration Will Drive Up Child Uninsured Rates if Public Charge Guidance is Issued

    Kelly Whitener

    [Editor’s Note: On September 22, 2018, the Department of Homeland Security posted a draft regulation that would change the public charge test. The posted draft is different from “leaked” versions analyzed here in several key respects, and the conclusions of this blog post should not be used in reference to the September 22 posting. The posted draft…

  • Proposed Changes to Medicaid Access Rule Would Exempt 18 States

    Karina Wagnerman

    In March, CMS proposed changes to the Medicaid Access Rule. That Rule, in effect only since 2016, establishes procedures that states must meet to demonstrate that they are complying with the Medicaid statute’s requirement that provider payment rates be sufficient to ensure Medicaid beneficiaries have access to care.   We recently shared our comments on the…

  • Proposed Changes to Medicaid Access Rule Could Lead to Deep Cuts in EPSDT Services

    Karina Wagnerman

    We have been busy working on our comments on the proposed rule that would make significant changes to the Medicaid Access Rule. As my colleague, Andy Schneider, wrote last month, one of the major changes in the proposed rule is to allow states to make fee-for-service payment cuts of 4% a year (6% over two…

  • Proposed Changes to Medicaid Access Rule Would Undermine Access to Care

    Andy Schneider

    CMS published proposed changes to the Medicaid Access Rule in the Federal Register on March 23 that would have a far-reaching impact on Medicaid beneficiaries and providers. Now that we’ve had time to analyze how the proposed changes would impact children, families and others who rely on Medicaid to meet their health care needs, we…