Indiana
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New GAO Report on Medicaid Waiver Evaluations Identifies Many Shortcomings
Earlier this week, the GAO released a new report that looks closely at Section 1115 Medicaid demonstration evaluations. The states examined are Arizona, Arkansas, California, Indiana, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, and New York. The report was requested by Republican Members of Congress from the committees of jurisdiction. The report uncovered a number of problems including that…
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Indiana’s Waiver Approval Adds More Barriers to Medicaid Coverage
Following the recent approval of Kentucky’s waiver, Indiana becomes the second major waiver approval by the Trump Administration which establishes more barriers to Medicaid coverage. This is an unfortunate but not surprising turn of events. It’s worth noting that Indiana’s own evaluation shows numerous barriers to coverage already existing in Indiana’s HIP 2.0 program, yet…
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Tracking Medicaid Work Requirement Proposals
We here at Georgetown University CCF are closely tracking Medicaid Section 1115 demonstration waiver proposals as states attempt to create new barriers to coverage. There are many troubling proposals pending, but one of the most common is the imposition of a work or community service requirement as a condition of Medicaid coverage. As a reference,…
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Nationwide Rate of Uninsured Children Reaches Historic Low
Nationwide 95.5 percent of children had health insurance in 2016, up from 95.2 percent the previous year—and up from 92.9 percent in 2013, the year before the ACA was fully implemented. While relatively few children rely on the ACA’s Marketplace for insurance, many gained coverage in Medicaid or CHIP when their parents signed up for…
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Section 1115 Medicaid Waiver Comments
Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families contributes an independent perspective to the public dialogue on the future of Medicaid through the lens of children and their families.
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State CHIP Snapshots
The Role of CHIP in Children’s Coverage In 2016 the children’s health insurance coverage rate in the United States dropped to just above 95 percent, an impressive achievement. Key to this success is the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which provides coverage to children who do not qualify for Medicaid but whose families cannot otherwise afford…
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A Medicaid Beneficiary in Indiana Speaks Out Against Work Requirements
We have been reading the comments that were publicly submitted to CMS on Indiana’s request to add a work requirement to its Medicaid waiver, known as Healthy Indiana Plan (HIP) 2.0. This one jumped out at me: “I live in Indiana and rely on HIP 2.0 for my health insurance. I suffer from Bi-polar Disorder…
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CMS Does Not Appear to Be Honoring Public Comment Requirement on Indiana Medicaid Waiver Request
My top-notch intern is checking the CMS website every day, and it looks like Friday June 9th, after regular business hours, federal CMS did two things with respect to Indiana’s desire to impose a work requirement on certain Medicaid beneficiaries and make other changes to their Healthy Indiana Plan (HIP) 2.0 program. First, CMS certified the application…
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It is Complicated. A Child’s View Can Guide Us.
By Rylin Rodgers, Riley Child Development Center Too often policy discussions and budget debates are framed in terms of winners and losers at the program, department, or budget line level. Families raising children who have health care needs and disabilities are impacted every day by public policy, systems, and services related to health care, education, housing,…
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INTERACTIVE MAPS: Children Covered by Medicaid and CHIP by county, state or congressional district.
These maps show how many children are covered by Medicaid in each county and congressional district. Visit these links to view the maps, and to download handouts on your state’s coverage data: Percent of Children Covered by Medicaid/CHIP (congressional district) Percent of Children Covered by Medicaid/CHIP (county) Visit CCF’s State Resource Center for state-level data on health…
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CMS Turns Down Indiana Request to Lock People Out of Health Coverage Who Don’t Complete Renewal Process
While we at CCF were wrapping up our annual conference on Friday, CMS sent a letter to Governor Pence’s office turning down a request by the state to amend their Medicaid Section 1115 HIP 2.0 waiver in two ways that would have been harmful to beneficiaries. The first issue is especially of interest as we…
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Too Soon to Replicate Indiana’s Medicaid Waiver
By Jesse Cross-Call, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities Several states are considering adopting features of the federal waiver through which Indiana has expanded Medicaid — such as setting up accounts modeled on health savings accounts for each beneficiary, delaying coverage until beneficiaries pay premiums tied to their incomes, and ending coverage for some beneficiaries…
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Indiana Becomes the 29th State (Including DC) to Expand Medicaid
[Editor’s Note: The terms and conditions and letter issued by federal CMS are available through these links: agreement, special terms and conditions and letter.] Today Governor Mike Pence received approval from federal CMS for a Section 1115 waiver to implement his Healthy Indiana Plan (HIP2.0) and extend coverage to as many as 350,000 Hoosiers –…
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Indiana Medicaid Expansion Waiver Not Yet Open for Public Comment
The federal government did not certify Indiana’s Section 1115 Medicaid Research and Demonstration waiver to expand its Healthy Indiana program as complete and open for public comment because the state did not conduct the required tribal consultation with the Potowatomi Indians. The waiver request can be seen here. We along with our partners at the…
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HIP 2.0 – Indiana’s Version of Medicaid Expansion
(Another chapter in the unfolding saga of Round 2 of Medicaid expansion, which I call “from simplicity to complexity”.) A few weeks ago I blogged about Governor Pence’s announcement of his intention to submit a waiver request to expand his Medicaid program using “Healthy Indiana 2.0” as a starting point. The state is currently taking…
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Governor Pence Announces Plans to Expand Medicaid to Hoosiers in the Coverage Gap through Healthy Indiana 2.0
In what I think is a very significant political development, Governor Mike Pence announced his intention to submit a Section 1115 Medicaid waiver proposal to the federal government by the end of June, which would extend coverage to the newly eligible parents and adults below 133% of the federal poverty line. One reason Indiana was…
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Children’s Health Coverage on the Eve of the Affordable Care Act
Georgetown University Center for Children and Families researchers analyzed health insurance data from the Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey to get a closer look at children’s coverage trends. On the eve of the implementation of the Affordable Care Act coverage expansions, the authors found important lessons from the success the U.S. has had in covering children. The number of uninsured…
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Red Flags Raised on Indiana Waiver Proposal
A group of influential national organizations, including Georgetown CCF, submitted a letter today to Secretary Sebelius expressing concerns about some features of the pending Section 1115 Medicaid Demonstration request from the state of Indiana. The letter is available here. The Section 1115 waiver request focuses on using Healthy Indiana as a vehicle for the state’s…
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CMS Clarified Enrollment Caps in Medicaid Waivers Will Not be Permitted
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued questions and answers today which, among other things, clarified that Section 1115 waiver requests that include enrollment caps or similar policies would not be approved going forward. CMS notes that such policies do not “further the objectives of the program.” Background note here, Section 1115 Secretarial…
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Getting Into Gear for 2014: Findings from a 50-State Survey of Eligibility, Enrollment, Renewal, and Cost-Sharing Policies in Medicaid and CHIP, 2012-2013
As 2013 begins, implementation of the major provisions of the ACA, including its coverage expansions, is less than a year away. Following the Supreme Court ruling to uphold the ACA and the 2012 elections, efforts to prepare for 2014 are moving into high gear in many states. The majority of states are capitalizing on web-based…
