Media Coverage
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Why Aren’t Arkansas Medicaid Enrollees Reporting Work Verification Data?
NPR By: Jacob Kauffman More than a quarter of the 27,000 Arkansans subject to a new work requirement in order to keep Medicaid coverage did not satisfy the state’s new reporting rules, according to state officials. … Marquita Little, health policy director for Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, says she is concerned that people…
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There’s a Medicaid ‘subsidy cliff’ health-care officials are worried about
The Washington Post By: Colby Itkowitz There’s a significant population of Medicaid recipients who would lose their health-care coverage if states began requiring them to work — regardless of whether they got a job. … Joan Alker, a Georgetown University public-policy professor who is closely following the waiver submissions, told me the state’s two extra years of…
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Another View — Tricia Brooks: Citizenship paperwork would turn back NH Medicaid
New Hampshire Union Leader By: Tricia Brooks New Hampshire is proposing to add burdensome paperwork requirements for U.S. citizens to prove eligibility for Medicaid. That’s one of the requests it is making in its Medicaid waiver proposal. This is perplexing because the state and federal governments have spent millions of dollars establishing systems that electronically…
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Medicaid Fraud Is Flying Under Insurers’ Radar
Governing By: Chad Terhune Despite receiving billions of dollars in taxpayer money, Medicaid insurers are lax in ferreting out fraud and neglect to tell states about unscrupulous medical providers, according to a federal report released Thursday. … Andy Schneider, a former federal health official and now a research professor at Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families,…
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Will New Medicaid Patients Be Able To Find Doctors?
WVTF Radio By: Michael Pope Hundreds of thousands of people in Virginia are about to gain access to health insurance through Medicaid. But will they be able to find doctor? 70% of doctors in Virginia re taking new Medicaid patients. … Joan Alker at Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families says 70% is actually a pretty…
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Trump freezes Obamacare payment program, leaving insurers scrambling
Think Progress By: Amanda Michelle Gomez The Trump administration is freezing a critical Affordable Care Act (ACA) insurance payment program that discourages insurers from cherry picking healthier enrollees by compensating them for sicker ones. The move could rattle insurance companies at the very moment when they’re deciding whether to continue selling ACA plans and setting premiums…
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Trump Hits Obamacare Again, Nearly Wiping Out Funds For Outreach
Huffington Post By: Jeffrey Young and Jonathan Cohn The Trump administration’s campaign to undermine the Affordable Care Act notched another achievement Tuesday. This time, the agency that runs the health insurance exchanges is slashing funds for organizations that help people to shop for coverage, forcing the groups to make do with about one-fourth of the federal funding…
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CMS to Freeze Risk Adjustment Payments to Health Insurers
MedPage Today By: Joyce Frieden The federal government will stop making risk adjustment payments to health insurers that have sicker-than-average patients, raising the specter of more premium increases by insurers to make up for the shortfall. … Withholding the payments will have both short-term and long-term effects, according to Edwin Park, JD, of Georgetown University.…
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States Weigh Extending Medicaid for Beneficiaries Who Work
CQ By: Misty Williams States seeking to require people on Medicaid to work are proposing to temporarily extend coverage for those who get jobs but end up earning too much money to qualify for the program. … A study released earlier this year estimated 8,700 low-income parents and caregivers in Alabama could be kicked off Medicaid…
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Fact check: NC Democrat says Mike Pence expanded Medicaid in Indiana
News Observer By: Paula Specht Democrats in North Carolina argue the state should expand Medicaid to help residents pay for health care. … “In Indiana’s case their waiver contained elements like some increased cost sharing and health savings accounts — other states that have expanded Medicaid have used some of these ideas too,” said Adam…
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Work requirements to qualify for government aid: How well does it work?
Catholic News Service By: Mark Pattison Ever since the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 — longhand for “welfare reform” — became law, the federal government has imposed work requirements for adults receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families money. … Andy Schneider, a research professor at the Center for Children and Families in Georgetown…
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Funders Join Forces in New York State to Push for Accurate Census Count
Nonprofit Quarterly By: Steve Dubb The New York Community Trust has agreed to host a New York State Grantmakers for Census Equity affinity fund, reports David Gentile in NYN Media. The foundation affinity group aims “to raise $1 to $2 million to help mobilize local and statewide efforts to make the 2020 Census accurate and fair,” said a…
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Federal judge blocks Kentucky’s Medicaid work requirements
Vox By: Dylan Scott A federal judge blocked Kentucky’s Medicaid work requirements on Friday, ruling that the Trump administration did not adequately consider before approving the state’s proposal whether work requirements would violate the program’s purpose of providing health care to the most vulnerable Americans. … Adding to the confusion, Bevin didn’t even really need to issue…
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CMS denies Massachusetts’ request to choose which drugs Medicaid covers
Modern Healthcare By: Virgil Dickson The CMS has denied Massachusetts’ request to become the first state in the nation to determine which drugs it will cover in its Medicaid program. … If states do pursue the demo the CMS described, access to drugs could be harmed as it’s unlikely states will get discounts as deep as…
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Iowa’s new private Medicaid manager has paid millions of dollars in penalties in a dozen states
Des Moines Register By: Jason Clayworth The corporation selected to help manage Iowa’s controversial privatized Medicaid system has faced serious charges of mismanagement resulting in at least $23.6 million in penalties in more than a dozen states, a Des Moines Register investigation shows. … The lists of sanctions are important, but — because of inconsistencies among states in…
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New York funders gear up for 2020 census challenges
NYN Media By: David Gentile The New York Community Trust has joined with other funders in the state to create the New York State Grantmakers for Census Equity which plans to raise $1 to $2 million to help mobilize local and statewide efforts to make the 2020 Census accurate and fair, spokespersons with the trust…
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As other Republican states pass Medicaid expansion, a question remains: Why not Tennessee?
Nashville Tennessean By: Natalie Allison Flown in to Nashville Thursday from Washington, D.C., the panelists on stage at Vanderbilt’s John Seigenthaler Center could offer statistics, economic projections and examples to support the benefit of states adopting Medicaid expansion. Roughly 300,000 uninsured adults in Tennessee — tens of thousands of whom are veterans — could be covered under…
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Health insurance is critical for kids to thrive in school
Tuscaloosa News By: Kim Doleatto Being ready for kindergarten doesn’t end at bedtime stories and knowing how to count to ten. Access to health care helps children thrive once they reach school. “More and more we’re finding a link between access to health care coverage and school readiness,” said Elisabeth Burak, Senior Fellow at Georgetown University’s…
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Kentucky is taking Medicaid expansion hostage to win its work requirements lawsuit
Vox By: Dylan Scott Any day now, we should be getting a federal court ruling on whether Kentucky and the Trump administration can legally require many Medicaid recipients to work. US District Judge James Boasberg, an Obama appointee, heard oral arguments on June 15 in the lawsuit to block the state’s work requirements. He said he planned to…
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Payer Roundup—CMS takes $168M cut in House funding bill; ACA lawsuit could impact employer coverage
Fierce Healthcare By: Mike Stankiewicz and Evan Sweeney The House Appropriations Committee hasn’t changed its tune much from last year regarding Medicare and Medicaid funding. … In total, the Alabama Medicaid Agency received about 800 public comments on its proposed work requirements for able-bodied parents; 90% were in opposition to the policy, as reported by Al.com. Researchers at the Georgetown…