Waivers
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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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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…
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Pennsylvania Governor Corbett’s Medicaid Waiver Evokes Lots of Concern!
Governor Corbett’s “Healthy PA” waiver proposal includes a request for 24 waivers of federal law – a record among recent similar Medicaid waiver requests. Perhaps as a result, a significant number of national and state stakeholders and policy analysts submitted comments to the federal government on the waiver request – the public comment period closed…
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Two Takeaways from New Hampshire and Michigan Medicaid Expansions
By Jesse Cross-Call, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities New Hampshire’s legislature has passed and Governor Maggie Hassan has signed into law legislation that will expand Medicaid as part of health reform effective July 1. This means that combined with Michigan, where expansion takes effect tomorrow, an additional 600,000 uninsured people will be newly eligible for…
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Sign On Letter Circulating to Express Concerns About Governor Corbett’s “Healthy PA” Medicaid Expansion Waiver
As you know, we, and many others, have had concerns about Governor Corbett’s Healthy PA proposal, which is currently open for public comment at the federal level. While we and other groups commenting support the intent of the state to move forward, the proposal has many problems. The deadline to comment is Friday, April 11th…
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New Data Shows Some Privatized Medicaid Plans Shut Out the Sickest
By Marsha Simon, Ph.D. Two days before the start of the new year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services sent a letter to Iowa’s Medicaid Director informing her that Iowa’s request to expand Medicaid by using federal funds (provided under the Affordable Care Act) to purchase private insurance was officially approved. A little noticed piece of…
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New Hampshire Senate Opens Door to Medicaid Expansion
It’s still cold here in New Hampshire, with more than a foot of hard-packed snow covering the ground. But that didn’t stop the Republican-led Senate from warming up to the idea of expanding Medicaid to cover an estimated 50,000 Granite Staters. The proposal moves over to the House, where representatives are expected to support the…
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Pennsylvania Medicaid Expansion Waiver Now Open for Public Comment
It’s official! Pennsylvania’s Section 1115 Medicaid Research and Demonstration waiver application has been certified as complete by the federal government and is now open for a 30-day comment period. This is basically the list of concessions Governor Corbett wants from CMS in exchange for accepting ACA Medicaid funding to cover more uninsured Pennsylvanians. The proposal…
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Arkansas ‘Private Option’ Model Doesn’t Make Sense for Pennsylvania
As readers of SayAhhh! know, Governor Corbett of Pennsylvania is currently revising a Section 1115 Medicaid waiver proposal to extend Medicaid coverage to the newly eligible low-income adults in his state. That would be great news if it weren’t such a problematic proposal (as I have blogged about before). The state took public comments on…
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Where Does EPSDT Stand in Post-ACA Medicaid Expansion 1115 Waivers?
In the last few months, CMS has approved Medicaid expansion 1115 waiver demonstrations in Arkansas, Iowa and Michigan. Pennsylvania has a draft 1115 waiver proposal to expand Medicaid out as well. One important question that has emerged is: How will states continue to provide EPSDT and other benefits to 19 and 20 year olds who…
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New Badgercare Waiver is Good News/Bad News for Transitional Medicaid
By Jon Peacock, Wisconsin Council on Children and Families The Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) announced yesterday that Wisconsin has been granted a federal waiver to make substantial changes to BadgerCare. As anticipated, the waiver allows the state to extend BadgerCare up to the poverty level for adults who aren’t custodial parents of dependent…
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Michigan Medicaid Expansion Waiver Approved; CMS Also Releases New Medicaid/CHIP FAQs
While I was enjoying some holiday down time with the family, CMS was busy churning things out over the past few weeks. On December 30th, CMS approved Michigan’s Section 1115 Medicaid waiver to help open the doors to Medicaid coverage for an estimated 300,000-500,000 Michiganders. The Medicaid expansion,will be implemented on April 1st. The Michigan…
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Pennsylvania’s Medicaid Waiver Proposal Does Not Impress
Last Friday, Governor Corbett’s Administration released it’s Section 1115 waiver application draft. This initiates the process for the required 30-day state comment period that must precede the submission of the waiver request to the federal government. The state will be holding a series of public hearings and webinars with the final hearing in Harrisburg…
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Iowa Medicaid Expansion Waiver Approved!
Just in time for Christmas, and more importantly in time to get the program up and running by January 1st, federal CMS has granted Iowa’s request for two Section 1115 waivers to allow the state to pursue its own version of Medicaid expansion. This is good news for the more than 100,000 Iowans who stand…
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More Details on Michigan’s Medicaid Expansion Emerge
Late last week Michigan filed a waiver amendment with CMS that provides more detail on what they are planning in their Medicaid expansion, which they call “Healthy Michigan.” The waiver amendment is a huge step forward in covering low-income adults, so here’s the good news and a few elements we plan to keep our eye…
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Medicaid Managed Care in Florida: Federal Waiver Approval and Implementation
Florida’s new Medicaid plan– called the Managed Medical Assistance program –will move nearly all of the state’s Medicaid beneficiaries into managed-care plans. This new plan, approved in June 2013, is the final chapter in a Medicaid reform effort that is almost a decade old. Drawing on experiences from that decade of experimentation, the new plan…
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Arkansas Medicaid Waiver Agreement Approved
So interesting things always happen on Fridays, I have noticed. This Friday, the week before open enrollment begins, was already pretty hopping when word came that federal CMS had approved Arkansas’ Section 1115 Medicaid waiver request to provide coverage to an estimated 200,000 adults through qualified health plans offered in the Arkansas Health Connector, the state’s health insurance…
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Iowa’s Medicaid Expansion Proposal: A Step Forward, But Read the Fine Print
CCF and 22 other national groups submitted comments to HHS about Iowa’s two complimentary Section 1115 waivers: Iowa Marketplace Choice Plan and Iowa Wellness Plan. Like my colleague Joan Alker wrote last week, Iowa’s proposal is not a simple Medicaid expansion like we saw earlier in the year, but a more complicated “round 2” approach…
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Medicaid Expansion Round 2: From Simplicity to Complexity
As a practical matter, I think accepting 100% federal funding to extend Medicaid coverage to adults and getting that coverage up and running is easier than setting up a state-based marketplace, implementing the new insurance reforms and tax credits etc etc. States obviously already have Medicaid programs up and running – in many cases with…
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Insure Oklahoma Extension Paves Way for Longer Term Solution
By David Blatt, Oklahoma Policy Institute Last Friday, Oklahoma received formal word that the federal government has agreed to extend Insure Oklahoma, the state’s publicly-funded premium assistance health insurance program, until the end of 2014, subject to certain program changes. This one-year extension means that individuals and businesses that participate in the program will not…