Medicaid
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It’s Unanimous: CMS Needs to Bring More Transparency to Medicaid Managed Care
Last week, MACPAC Commissioners voted to recommend that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services post all state Managed Care Program Annual Reports (MCPARs) to the CMS website. The vote was unanimous: 17-0. The recommendation will be included in MACPAC’s March 2024 Report to Congress. At first glance, this may seem unremarkable, but on further…
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CCF Comments on the Interim Final Rule on CMS Compliance with Reporting and Federal Medicaid Renewal Requirements
The Georgetown University Center for Children and Families submitted the following comments to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services regarding the interim final rule on CMS enforcement of state compliance with reporting and federal Medicaid renewal requirements under Section 1902(tt) of the Social Security Act (CMS- 2447). Read the Comments
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Momentum for Community Health Workers in Medicaid Continues in the New Year
For some good news to start 2024, the gains for community health workers (CHWs) in the Medicaid world continue to increase. We’ve written about the value of Medicaid as a sustainable funding source for CHW services and growing efforts in states previously here on Say Ahhh!…but wait, there’s more! Michigan has integrated CHWs in targeted…
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Most States Show Improvement in Automated (Ex Parte) Medicaid Renewal Rates
Although ex parte was hardly a household term before the unwinding of the Medicaid continuous enrollment requirement, most stakeholders and observers are now aware of the critical role automating renewals using data available to the state can play in reducing churn and promoting continuity of coverage in Medicaid and CHIP. The policy not only removes…
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CMS Announces $50 Million in Capacity Building Grants for Medicaid/CHIP School-Based Health Services
This week, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a Notice of Funding Opportunity for the much anticipated planning grants to implement or expand school-based health services for children enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP. As we’ve written about in previous blogs, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act appropriated $50 million in grants for states…
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New Report Outlines Opportunities for States to Leverage Medicaid to Improve Mental Health of Postpartum Moms and Babies
By: Anne Dwyer, Elisabeth Burak, Tanesha Mondestin, and Kay Johnson As we recognize Maternal Health Awareness Day, it’s a good time to take stock of where the U.S. stands in advancing maternal and child health. The relatively new state option to extend Medicaid postpartum coverage from 60 days to one full year provides states with…
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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…
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CMS Announces New State Opportunity to Advance Behavioral Health Care Integration
Last week, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a new state opportunity to test approaches for addressing behavioral, physical, and health-related social needs of individuals covered by Medicaid and Medicare. Structured as a new “Innovation in Behavioral Health” (IBH) model to be tested by the CMS Innovation Center, the state-based model is…
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CMS Unsurprisingly Concludes Georgia Demonstration Extension Request Is… An Extension Request
On December 22, CMS sent Georgia a letter confirming that the state’s section 1115 demonstration extension request was being reviewed as an extension request. This straightforward conclusion, which the state was trying to avoid, has some important consequences for the state’s on-going Medicaid expansion debacle. But let’s start with the background. In February 2023, Georgia…
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CMS Previews State Grants to Transform Maternal Health, Grow Community-Based Workforce
Many states have been taking a closer look at the experiences of pregnant and postpartum people amidst the persistent maternal health crisis, including reaching communities– most especially Black and Indigenous women and other communities of color who have not fared well in the traditional, clinical health care system. We at CCF have championed states electing…
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Zero to Six Continuous Coverage Proposed in Pennsylvania, Approved in New Mexico
As we hit the milestone of 3 million children losing Medicaid coverage in less than a year, movement toward multi-year eligibility in Medicaid continues to be a bright spot in the unwinding storm. Last week CMS approved New Mexico’s request to implement continuous coverage for children up to age 6, joining Oregon and Washington in…
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As Extra Medicaid Funding Phases Out at Year’s End, States Must Still Report Data and Comply with Federal Renewal Requirements
Starting in 2024, states will no longer receive extra federal funding associated with the Medicaid continuous enrollment requirement that was in place from March 2020 through March 2023. But the recent Interim Final Rule with Comment (IFC) released by CMS reminds states that they must continue to meet data reporting requirements specified by Congress and…
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A 1-2 Policy Punch Would Earn States a Gold Star in Covering Kids
As CCF’s Medicaid child enrollment tracker hit a sobering milestone this week – a net decline of 3 million children since March 2023 – CMS released a package of documents advising and encouraging states to do more to make sure children don’t slip through the cracks during the unwinding of the pandemic-related continuous enrollment requirement.…
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New Report Finds Alarming Trends in Maternal and Infant Health in Idaho and Calls for Improvements to Health Care Access
By Ivy Smith, Health Policy Specialist at Idaho Voices for Children Infant mortality in Idaho rose 18% and maternal mortality rose a staggering 121.5% from 2019 to 2021, according the Idaho Maternal and Infant Health Report 2023 published by Idaho Kids Covered, a statewide coalition of health care advocates and stakeholders supported by Idaho Voices…
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House Passes Bipartisan Medicaid and CHIP Behavioral Health Provisions, Senate Committees Act: Here’s a Breakdown
Last week, the House of Representatives passed its Support for Patients and Communities Reauthorization Act. Passing on a broad bipartisan basis, the bill would reauthorize certain provisions of the 2018 SUPPORT Act such as those supporting individuals with substance use disorders (SUDs) like requiring state Medicaid programs to provide coverage for medication-assisted treatment in addition…
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Three Million Fewer Children in the U.S. are Covered by Medicaid: CHIP Enrollment Isn’t Growing Much
As readers of Say Ahh! know, we’ve been closely tracking data from around the country related to the lifting of the COVID-19 pandemic related continuous coverage protections in Medicaid. The tracker is going up very quickly now– we hit one million on Halloween, two million on Thanksgiving and today three million fewer children are enrolled…
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A Tipping Point for School Medicaid Expansion
By Jessie Mandle, National Program Director of the Healthy Schools Campaign Since 2014, school districts have been allowed to bill Medicaid for all health services provided to all Medicaid-enrolled students, instead of being limited to reimbursement for services included in a student’s Individualized Education Plan (IEP). However, states have been slow to leverage this opportunity…
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Transparency in Medicaid Managed Care: The Wait Goes On
Last month, the Centers for Medicaid & CHIP Services (CMCS) issued a Center Informational Bulletin, “Medicaid and CHIP Managed Care Monitoring and Oversight Tools.” Among other items, this CIB discusses the Managed Care Program Annual Reports that state Medicaid agencies are required to submit to CMS. MCPARs are each state’s accounting of how each of…
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Medicaid Managed Care in 2023: The Year that Was
2023 marked an inflection point in the growth of Medicaid managed care. Enrollment in MCOs, which had climbed continuously in both 2021 and 2022 due largely to the continuous coverage policy in place during the Public Health Emergency, plateaued and then headed downward, due largely to the PHE unwinding. Much uncertainty remains as to how…
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States with Low Medicaid Participation Rates Saw the Greatest Child Coverage Gains During the Period of Pandemic Continuous Coverage Protections
By: Juliana St Goar & Joan Alker It is well documented that over the past three years, Medicaid enrollment grew while a continuous coverage requirement was in place. Though some of this growth can be attributed to Medicaid’s crucial role as a safety net program during times of economic hardship, federal law also played a…
