Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015: Summary of Key Provisions Impacting Children

On April 16th, President Obama signed into law the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA), now Public Law 114-10, which provides new federal funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) through 2017 and permanently adjusts the flawed Medicare physician payment formula to prevent cuts in reimbursements to Medicare providers. It also extends…

May 27, 2015

By

Elisabeth Wright Burak

Blog

CMS Administrator Verma Proposes to Repeal the Medicaid Access Rule

For the past two years, CMS Administrator Seema Verma has wanted to “rollback” the Medicaid Access Rule. That’s the CMS regulation that implements the requirement in the Medicaid statute that rates paid to physicians and other providers be “sufficient” so that enough participate in Medicaid to give beneficiaries access to covered services. In the…

July 16, 2019

By

Andy Schneider

Research & Reports

Medicaid’s Pandemic-Era Continuous Coverage Protections Helped Reduce Number of Uninsured Children

Download Report PDF Introduction Data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) for 2022 finds that the number of uninsured children continued to decline over the pandemic period – most likely as a consequence of the continuous coverage protection in Medicaid put in place by one of the first COVID-19 rescue packages, the…

November 15, 2023

By

Joan Alker

and

Aubrianna Osorio

Blog

Medicaid: The Port in a Storm for Children and Families

As Harvey and Irma remind us, natural disasters happen. And when they do, they threaten the health of children and families and the ability of providers to deliver needed services. It takes time for displaced families, providers, and communities to get back on their feet. It also takes resources. While federal Medicaid funds are always…

September 11, 2017

By

Andy Schneider

Research & Reports

State Medicaid Opportunities to Support Mental Health of Mothers and Babies During the 12-Month Postpartum Period

Download Full Report (PDF) By: Elisabeth Burak, Anne Dwyer, Tanesha Mondestin, and Kay Johnson Most states have moved to adopt a new state option to extend Medicaid coverage to all enrolled pregnant people from 60 days to 12 months following a pregnancy. As the predominant payor of U.S. births and health care to postpartum people…

January 23, 2024

By

Elisabeth Wright Burak

,

Anne Dwyer

,

Tanesha Mondestin

and

Guest

Blog

School Readiness as an “Essential Quality Metric” for Children: A Hook for Medicaid in Cross-System Work

The importance of a child’s first months and years can’t be overstated. It’s a time of rapid brain development and learning, where relationships and environments set the course for a child’s lifelong trajectory—even shaping the architecture of the brain. In 2016, Medicaid and CHIP served close to half of all children under 6, and more…

July 19, 2018

By

Elisabeth Wright Burak

Blog

Wisconsin Waiver Would Create Unprecedented Barriers to Medicaid Access

Wisconsin officials are seeking unprecedented changes in the state’s Medicaid coverage for adults without dependent children. The draft proposals (summarized here) would significantly increase the number of uninsured Wisconsinites, make the state less healthy, and impede efforts to increase the Wisconsin workforce. From a national perspective, the section 1115 waiver that Wisconsin is seeking would…

May 18, 2017

By

Jon Peacock

Blog

We Can Fix This, People! More than Half of Uninsured Parents Are Hispanic

New data zeroes in on a subgroup of uninsured adults not always studied: uninsured parents. An Urban Institute report released yesterday found that more than half (57 percent) of uninsured parents surveyed in March/June 2014 were Hispanic and more than one-third (38.4 percent) said their primary language was Spanish. While I know this does not…

September 10, 2014

By

Sonya Schwartz

Blog

New and Improved! A Special Enrollment Period for Some Caught in Medicaid Coverage Gap

As part of our Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded Navigator Technical Assistance project, we’ve helped Navigators and assisters answer tough questions from consumers. Many questions focused on special enrollment periods (SEPs), including a new “tax season” SEP that applied to individuals who learned about the requirement to have coverage only when they found out they were…

April 27, 2015

By

JoAnn Volk

Blog

Consumers Should Resist the Urge to Do Nothing and Renew Coverage through the Federal Marketplace

When enrollment reopens in the health insurance marketplaces in just a few days, the 7-8 million current enrollees will have an opportunity to make sure they get the right amount of financial assistance and are enrolled in a plan that best fits their needs for 2015. This new brief outlines the process for consumers in…

November 14, 2014

By

Tricia Brooks

Blog

Half of the Uninsured are Eligible for ACA Coverage

by Jordan Messner, Graduate Research Intern The Kaiser Family Foundation published a report on October 13 examining the uninsured population in the United States and their options for coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The report found that although 32.3 million nonelderly people were uninsured at the beginning of 2015, 49% of these individuals (15.7…

October 16, 2015

By

Guest

Presentations

Resources for Association of Health Care Journalists Conference 2017

Where to Find State-by-State Medicaid Information Federal Government Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services (CMCS) State Medicaid and CHIP Profiles, https://www.medicaid.gov/medicaid/by-state/by-state.html Managed Care State Profiles, https://www.medicaid.gov/medicaid/managed-care/state-profiles/index.html Section 1115 Demonstration Waivers, https://www.medicaid.gov/medicaid/section-1115-demo/demonstration-and-waiver-list/waivers_faceted.html Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC) MACStats: Medicaid and CHIP Data Book (December 2016), https://www.macpac.gov/macstats/ Data Book: Beneficiaries Dually Eligible for Medicare…

April 22, 2017

By

Andy Schneider

Blog

Arkansas’s Health Care Reform Forum: Medicaid Expansion and the Private Option

How has the Affordable Care Act and health care reform directly affected consumers and access to health care? How does Medicaid expansion relate to the broader health reform effort? How has Arkansas’s Private Option affected the state’s health care system? What makes a premium assistance model appealing for health care Arkansas and other states? These…

October 8, 2015

Blog

Healthcare.Gov Promises a Snazzier Production for OE3

Yesterday marked the debut of the third open enrollment period for the Health Insurance Marketplaces, including Healthcare.gov, which is the storefront to the Marketplace in 37 states. Has the performance improved? What new bells and whistles will delight the audience? Faster lines at the box office. Although it looks the same to consumers, new account…

November 2, 2015

By

Tricia Brooks

Blog

Research Update: Checking Up on Health Care Utilization and Providers After the ACA’s Medicaid Expansion

This week, I am checking up on Medicaid research regarding health care utilization and providers. There is evidence that the expansion increased access and utilization of health care, led to an increase in smoking cessation, and increased the share of patients that physicians saw covered through Medicaid. Health Services Research’s Impact of Recent Medicaid Expansions…

December 8, 2017

By

Karina Wagnerman

Presentations

Overview of Immigrant Eligibility Policies for Health Insurance Affordability Programs

The Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families, in partnership with the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and the National Immigration Law Center Presented in a Series of Assister Webinars Focusing on Coverage Eligibility and Application Process for Families that Include Immigrants sponsored by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Webinar 1: September…

September 22, 2014

Blog

Getting MAGI Right: When Does Social Security Income Count?

UPDATED VERSION HERE Last week, we released a primer on the basics of MAGI – how rules for counting household size and income to determine eligibility for Medicaid and CHIP have been aligned with Marketplace subsidies. The move to MAGI has brought about a number of changes in Medicaid and CHIP, but to further complicate…

February 4, 2015

By

Tricia Brooks

Blog

Waiting on King… what’s at stake?

It feels like déjà vu. The health policy world is waiting on pins and needles to see what the Supreme Court has to say about the viability of the Affordable Care Act. On possible decision days, all browsers are pointed to SCOTUSblog.com. But this time we are waiting for a decision in King v. Burwell…

June 17, 2015

By

Elisabeth Wright Burak

Blog

Mothers Mentoring Mothers

More than 4.8 million American children (6 percent) lack health insurance. Among uninsured US children, 62-72 percent are eligible for but not enrolled in Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). For uninsured, low-income children, 84 percent are eligible for but not enrolled in Medicaid/CHIP. Racial/ethnic disparities exist in insurance coverage for U.S. children: compared…

January 29, 2018

By

Glenn Flores, MD, FAAP

and

Adam Searing

Research & Reports

#4 BEING THE FINAL PART (REALLY) OF THE “WHITHER PREMIUM ASSISTANCE ” SERIES

Where we left off: I was musing that the new CHIPRA options to do premium assistance may not prove to be all that much more attractive than the existing ones. Some states may reconfigure their programs (if they can) to qualify for the performance bonus. So far there hasn’t been a rush to pick up…

May 3, 2010

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