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Improving Early Developmental Screenings for Ohio’s Kids: A Lesson in Collaboration
By Brandi Slaughter, Interim CEO, Voices for Ohio’s Children We all want what’s best for our children – whether they are our patients, our students, our neighbors or our own kids. This shared commitment to the health and well-being of Ohio’s future leaders drove our recent work in Ohio to establish Early Periodic Screening Diagnosis and…
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A Primer on Health Care Quality Measurement and Improvement for Children in Medicaid and CHIP
When I was the CHIP Director in New Hampshire, we thought that achieving a 95% rate of coverage for kids was the high bar. As a country, we are not only closing in on that goal, but leading states have raised the bar to 98% and beyond. And while we must continue to eliminate disparities…
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Report Provides (Some) Insight on Network Adequacy as New Regulations Promise More
By Sean Miskell As more Americans gain coverage through the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) marketplaces, attention is increasingly turning to the quality of this coverage, especially concerning the adequacy of the provider networks available under these plans. Questions about the scope of networks for plans sold through the Marketplace are important with regard to access…
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Improving Health Care Access for American Indians and Alaska Natives
by Jesse Cross-Call, originally posted on cbpp.org An updated policy for how the federal government helps finance the costs of Medicaid services for American Indians and Alaska Natives will improve the delivery of care and save states money. Medicaid plays a critical role in providing health care to American Indians and Alaska Natives; a quarter…
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Research Shows that Utah and Florida’s “ICHIA Option” Will Improve Access to Health Coverage and Services For Lawfully Residing Immigrant Children
Last week, both the Utah and Florida legislatures passed laws that extend Medicaid and CHIP coverage to lawfully residing children who would otherwise have had to wait five years before becoming eligible to enroll. This is a big victory in two states with some of the highest child uninsurance rates in the country. Related Content…
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Breaking News: U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee Moves to Cut CHIP Funding
The Congressional budget process appears to be in a fair amount of chaos with Senate and House Republicans at risk of failing to agree with each other even on a Budget Resolution. While that is not surprising — given the state of disarray in Congress — I was surprised to see that the House Energy…
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CHIP Bump Brings About Coverage Gains for Kids in Florida and Utah
Just a few hours ago, the Florida legislature passed its final bills of the session and included an extension of Medicaid and CHIP coverage to lawfully residing immigrant children who are currently excluded for five years. Known to many as the “ICHIA option”, this was a huge victory for kids in Florida (and their advocates…
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Oklahoma’s Proposed Medicaid Cut Won’t Pass Federal Muster
by Jesse Cross-Call, originally posted on cbpp.org Oklahoma’s Senate is considering legislation, which its House passed last week, to end Medicaid coverage for 110,000 very low-income parents. But even if Oklahoma enacts the legislation, federal officials almost certainly won’t grant the needed federal approval to move forward. By federal law, states must provide Medicaid coverage…
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FAQ: Health Marketplace Tax Penalties, Exemptions, Reconciliation, and Special Enrollment Periods
By Tricia Brooks, Sandy Ahn, Sabrina Corlette, and JoAnn Volk, this was originally posted March 9, 2015 under the title “Confused about What Happens at Tax Time? FAQs on Penalties, Exemptions, Reconciliation, and SEPs“. As part of our Robert Wood Johnson Foundation funded work in providing technical assistance to consumer assisters in five states, we…
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Some Tax Guidance for People in Immigrant Families
Now that we are knee-deep in tax season, we have heard reports of confusion about new tax filing rules related to health coverage for people in immigrant families. Here are some of the common questions we’ve heard so far and our answers. Related Content: ICHIA Fact Sheet: CHIP and Health Coverage for Lawfully Residing Children…
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IRS Issues Guidance on Overlapping Medicaid and Marketplace Coverage
At last, we have IRS guidance informing consumers and tax preparers about issues with overlapping coverage through Medicaid and the Marketplace. I described this problem in a recent blog, highlighting the confusion that could result from 1095 forms showing dual coverage in Medicaid and the Marketplace. We have been concerned that during the tax reconciliation…
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How Milwaukee Won the White House Healthy Communities Challenge
In November, the White House launched a “Healthy Communities Challenge” and identified twenty cities with large numbers or high percentages of uninsured individuals to compete in enrolling new people in plans during OE3. Through this challenge, communities made concentrated efforts to reach remaining uninsured individuals and helped connect them to coverage. Good news and hearty…
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EPSDT: A Primer on Medicaid’s Pediatric Benefit
Children enrolled in Medicaid are entitled to a comprehensive array of preventive and ameliorative care through the Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic and Treatment (EPSDT) benefit. Beyond the indecipherable acronym, EPSDT is a critically important benefit that is broadly recognized as the definitive standard for children. We’ve broken down the acronym in this fact sheet,…
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Michigan’s Governor Turns to Medicaid in Flint Crisis
We have often said that one of the very important features of Medicaid’s financing structure is the program’s ability to address emerging short and long-term public health crises. And previous national emergencies such as Hurricane Katrina and 9-11 also resulted in state leaders of all political persuasions looking to Medicaid to help them address critical…
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CMS Releases 2015 Report on the Quality of Health Care for Children in Medicaid and CHIP
Now that CMS has released the fifth annual Quality of Health Care for Children in Medicaid and CHIP, let’s take a look at the highlights of the children’s report. First, some background: the 2009 CHIP Reauthorization Act launched a wide-ranging set of initiatives to advance pediatric health care quality measurement and improvement. At the top…
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One More Chance to Comment on SBC Changes
Originally posted on the CHIRblog. Last week, the Departments of Health and Human Services, Treasury and Labor released a proposed revised template for the Summary of Benefits and Coverage (SBC), giving the public 30 days to comment before these long-coming changes are finalized. The process for implementing changes to the SBC template began in December…
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Healthcare.gov Changing Approach to Special Enrollment Periods, May be Bumpy Road for Consumers
This was originally posted on the CHIRblog. Lost your job? Moving to a new area? Having a baby? Make sure you have documentation of these life events if you want health insurance through healthcare.gov. Recently announced, the administration will now require verifying documents from consumers who enroll or change their plans using a special enrollment…
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A Roadmap For Getting Enrollment Right for Immigrant Families
The Affordable Care Act brought the promise of affordable coverage to many lawfully present immigrants who are ineligible for Medicaid and CHIP due to longstanding immigrant eligibility restrictions. But, despite the overarching goal of increasing coverage for immigrant families through the health insurance marketplace, many continue to face challenges when applying for coverage on healthcare.gov.…
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GAO Report Raises Concerns About Waiving Medicaid Transportation Benefits
By Sean Miskell As states debating whether to expand Medicaid (and some that already have) consider changes to their Medicaid programs via 1115 waivers, one proposal that keeps popping up is the elimination of non-emergency medical transportation benefits (NEMT). This week, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report on state efforts to waive NEMT…
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SHADAC Report Echoes Good News on Uninsured Rate for Children
The State Health Access Data Assistance Center (SHADAC) published its annual report “State Level Trends in Children’s Health Insurance Coverage” and it is an excellent state resource on children’s health coverage rates. Similar to Georgetown’s annual report on children’s health insurance, SHADAC reports on state-by-state coverage rates for children and provides additional data on children’s…
