Medicaid
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Black Maternal & Mental Health Summit Highlights the Urgency for Policy and Practice Change
In July, I had the chance to attend the Black Maternal & Mental Health Summit hosted by the Shades of Blue Project. Founder Kay Matthews established Shades of Blue in 2013 after the loss of her stillborn daughter. With worsening maternal morbidity rates in the United States, Kay has turned to advocacy as a way…
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Unwinding Data Recap: What Do We Know So Far?
Last Friday marked the end of the month, which meant the release of new unwinding data from CMS. This time, though, CMS not only published data on renewal outcomes for June, but also posted preliminary outcome data for July, cutting the time lag to two months. As a result, there is now unwinding data available…
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CMS Releases Guidance on 12-Month Continuous Eligibility for Children
CMS has released long awaited guidance to states on implementing 12-month continuous eligibility (CE) for all children in Medicaid and the Children’s Insurance Program (CHIP) under the age of 19 as enacted by Congress in the Consolidated Appropriations Act. As of January 2023, 26 states cover some or all children in Medicaid for a full…
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HHS Takes Action on Maternal Mental Health Initiatives, Requests Input on Medicaid/CHIP Parity Compliance
Last week, the Administration announced a number of actions related to mental health with a focus on maternal health as well as parity in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Here’s a readout of the latest actions: Maternal Health Funding: HHS announced awards of more than $103 million to support and expand access…
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AAP and CCF Release 2023 State Snapshots on the Importance of Medicaid for Children’s Coverage
Starting back in 2017 we created state snapshots with our colleagues at the American Academy of Pediatrics that show who Medicaid covers in each state, with a particular emphasis on Medicaid’s role in covering children. After a hiatus during the pandemic, we’ve updated the easy-to-understand 2-pagers with all the latest data on how Medicaid helps…
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State Medicaid and CHIP Snapshots, 2023
The Georgetown University Center for Children and Families (CCF) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) created factsheets underscoring the importance of Medicaid in providing coverage for children in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Sources available here. Previous snapshots can be found here (2019), here (2018) and here (2017). Check out more interactive…
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New Resource Helps Pediatricians Inform Families on How to Keep Eligible Children Enrolled in Medicaid
We recently learned that one of the most effective tools for keeping eligible people enrolled in Medicaid – automated or “ex parte” renewals – has not been set up correctly in 30 states, including DC, while other states, such as Texas, are barely using automated systems at all. As Say Ahhh! readers know, Medicaid eligibility…
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How many children are losing Medicaid?
The analysis on this page is part of a larger suite of Medicaid unwinding data. Please visit our “Unwinding the PHE” landing page to view more. As of March 2023, more than 35.1 million children were enrolled in Medicaid and approximately 4.3 million were enrolled in Medicaid coverage funded by CHIP—more than half of all U.S.…
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Medicaid Support for Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health: Lessons from Five States
By: Kay Johnson and Elisabeth Burak Five states’ journeys to strengthen Medicaid support for infant and early childhood mental health (IECMH) –California, Colorado, Michigan, North Carolina, and Washington — offer lessons for other states seeking to more effectively prevent, identify, and address mental health conditions among young children in Medicaid. Lessons speak to the importance of: 1. Leadership…
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Looming Government Shutdown Could Undermine Federal Oversight of Medicaid Unwinding
[Editor’s Note: On September 30, Congress approved a last-minute measure to fund the government through November 17, 2023, which temporarily averted a government shutdown. CCF experts will continue to monitor the funding debate and its impact on health care programs and the people who rely on them.] Sadly, we’ve been here before and it’s highly…
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CBO Confirms House Bill Prohibiting Use of “QALYs” Would Undermine State Negotiation of Medicaid Supplemental Rebates
I previously raised significant concerns about a House health bill that would expand an existing Medicare prohibition on the use of Quality-Adjusted Life Years (QALYs) to other federal programs including Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). I warned that the bill was overbroad in its prohibition of the use of QALYs and could…
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CMS Takes Swift Action to Require States to Address Medicaid Auto-Renewal Errors and Reinstate Children’s Coverage
We have long feared that large numbers of children were losing Medicaid during the unwinding, essentially by mistake, and the ex parte debacle underscores the fact that this is indeed happening. As we’ve previously explained, the ex parte issue came to light in August after a CMS investigation found several states were doing automatic renewals…
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Midwives Offer State Medicaid Agencies Another Tool to Address the Maternal Health Crisis
Doulas have been a popular topic in the maternal health space as one means of improving birthing outcomes, especially for Black women and other communities of color that have been historically marginalized from the traditional health system. It can be confusing to differentiate between the different support persons and clinicians that may assist expecting or…
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House Republican Budget Resolution Includes Draconian Medicaid Cuts
Yesterday, on September 19, 2023, House Budget Committee Chair Jodey Arrington issued a House budget resolution for fiscal year 2024 that would cut federal Medicaid spending by $1.9 trillion — or nearly 28 percent — over the next 10 years. While the budget resolution includes very little detail, it offers some indication about how the…
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Update on Medicaid Unwinding and Marketplace Enrollment
I previously reported that according to data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), of the 715,000 Medicaid beneficiaries who lost Medicaid coverage in April due to unwinding of the Medicaid continuous coverage protection, a total of about 54,000 people or 7.5 percent — who were either previously enrolled in Medicaid in March…
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Bipartisan House Health Bill Includes Sound Medicaid Drug Pricing Provisions
A bipartisan health price transparency bill — The Lower Costs, More Transparency Act (H.R. 5378) — is scheduled to be considered on the House floor “on suspension” this week. The bill includes two sound Medicaid provisions related to “spread pricing” in Medicaid managed care and to Medicaid pharmacy reimbursement, which are similar to those included…
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Analysis: New Mothers Gained Health Coverage During Pandemic-Era Coverage Protections, But 1 in 10 Still Uninsured
The Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) required states to maintain uninterrupted coverage for all Medicaid beneficiaries in exchange for additional federal funding. This continuous coverage protection also extended to pregnant women in Medicaid beyond the previous 60-day postpartum cutoff that most states have now moved to extend to 12 months postpartum. A new analysis…
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State Response Due Today on Ex Parte Noncompliance Issue Impacting Kid’s Coverage
On August 30, CMS revealed that a number of states were incorrectly processing ex parte (automated renewals), an issue that mostly often impacts children although there are circumstances where other eligible members may be affected. In a nutshell, if one person in the family could not be renewed automatically via ex parte, no one is…
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CMS Releases Postpartum Care Toolkit to Help States Address Access, Quality, and Equity of Care in Medicaid and CHIP
The rapid state adoption of extended postpartum Medicaid coverage from 60 days to 12 months offers an important opportunity to help ensure new parents and their infants get the health care they need during a critical period of family change following a birth. Last month, CMS released a timely resource for states seeking to help…
