Financing

Florida Legislature Adjourns with Unfinished Medicaid Business: Federal Hospital Funding to Run Out in 2015 Putting the Pressure on For Next Year

The Florida legislature adjourned for 2014 without accepting the federal Medicaid funding on the table to extend coverage to as many as a million Floridians who would have been eligible. According to the state’s Social Services Estimating Conference, for the current fiscal year (which will end on June 30, the state could have received $1,258,054,808 […]

Joan Alker

May 5, 2014

Medicaid Option: The Good Deal for States is Better than Expected

By Edwin Park, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities In a little-noticed finding in last week’s Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report on health reform, CBO sharply lowered its estimates of how much the Medicaid expansion will cost states. We’ve noted repeatedly that the federal government will cover the large bulk of the expansion’s cost. As our new report explains, these new […]

Guest

April 23, 2014

CMS Helps Florida Out with Short-Term Fix – Florida Should Accept Medicaid Option for Long-Term Solution

By Greg Mellowe, Florida CHAIN The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced its approval of a three-year extension of Florida’s Statewide Medicaid Managed Care program, but only a one-year extension of the Low Income Pool (LIP). The LIP provides the state with additional federal Medicaid funding that hospitals can use to […]

Guest

April 21, 2014

Ryan Budget Again Proposes Medicaid Block Grant – Threatens to Add Millions to Ranks of Uninsured & Underinsured

By Edwin Park, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s new budget again proposes to radically restructure Medicaid by converting it into a block grant, and it would cut federal Medicaid funding steeply, by $732 billion over the next decade. It would also repeal health reform’s Medicaid expansion. The combined […]

Guest

April 2, 2014

President Obama’s Budget Proposes Permanent Extension of Express Lane Eligibility

By Tara Mancini This week, the Administration reinforced its support for Express Lane Eligibility by including its permanent extension in the proposed FY 2015 budget. As many Say Ahhh! readers know, without further authorization, this effective enrollment strategy is set to expire at the end of September. Other notable extensions in Medicaid and CHIP include: […]

FMAP Guidance on 12-Month Continuous Eligibility for Adults

By Martha Heberlein Way back in May, CMS put out guidance on five strategies designed to make it easier for Medicaid-eligible folks to connect to coverage. You’ve probably heard that several of these have been incredibly successful, including in Arkansas and California. And while 35 states have picked up one or more of the five, […]