Medicaid
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If You Care About Children’s Mental Health, Here’s Why You Need to Care About Medicaid Unwinding
The pandemic has shed new light on children’s mental health across the nation. While the evidence is clear that even before the COVID pandemic there was a crisis in children’s mental health, the pandemic has further intensified the crisis, as highlighted by national pediatric provider groups in their declaration of a national emergency in child…
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Why North Carolina is Finally Getting to ‘Yes’ on Medicaid Expansion
The ancient Roman historian Tacitus wrote that, “It is the singularly unfair peculiarity of war that the credit of success is claimed by all, while a disaster is attributed to one alone.” In the spirit of this observation from 97 AD, I’ll happily admit to trying for at least some historical involvement in North Carolina’s…
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Medicaid and CHIP Provisions in Biden Administration’s Fiscal Year 2024 Budget
On March 9, the Biden Administration issued its budget plan for fiscal year 2024. Based on budget documents from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), here’s a brief summary of the provisions related to Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), along with the…
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Unwinding Wednesday #23: CMS Releases Anticipated 2023 State Level Timelines
Kudos to CMS for prompt posting of key dates that states are initiating action as we approach the end of Medicaid continuous eligibility on March 31, 2023. Keep in mind that these dates are “anticipated,” and the document bears a specific date; as such, the list will likely be updated if timelines shift. So, what…
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House Bill Prohibiting Use of “QALYs” Is Overbroad, Could Undermine State Negotiation of Medicaid Supplemental Rebates
Editor’s Note: An amended version of the bill (H.R. 485) was reported by the Subcommittee on Health of the House Energy and Commerce Committee on March 8, 2023. The revised language addresses some of the concerns discussed in this blog post. A House bill (H.R. 485) which was one of the bills discussed at a…
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Medicaid Unwinding Risks Maternal Health Coverage Gains During Pandemic
The pandemic’s continuous coverage protection had a profound effect on health coverage for pregnant women and new mothers, who for the first time experienced pregnancy-related coverage that did not end just 60 days after the end of pregnancy. Before the pandemic, about half of all people covered by Medicaid for pregnancy lost coverage after the…
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Unwinding Wednesday #22: Updates to 50-State Tracker with One Month Until Unwinding Start Date
We are officially in final unwinding countdown with exactly one month until states are allowed to begin Medicaid terminations. In preparation, we have been updating our 50-state tracker with new information including revised state unwinding plans and state renewal reports that were submitted to CMS. Since the 50-state tracker first went live in September 2022,…
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Center for Renewing America Budget Plan Would Cut Federal Medicaid Spending by One-Third, Repeal Affordable Care Act’s Coverage Expansions
According to recent media reports, Russell Vought, the former Director of the Office of Management and Budget in the Trump Administration who is now President of the Center for Renewing America, is a key advisor to House Republican leaders for the severe budget cuts they should seek as the price for agreeing to raise the…
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Federal Medicaid Expansion Incentives Offer Another Tool for States to Continue Coverage as Pandemic-Era Medicaid Rules End
Our new factsheet, “State Fiscal Incentives for Medicaid Expansion Continue after the End of Public Health Emergency” lays out the substantial federal financial incentives for Medicaid expansion remaining available to non-expansion states after April 1, 2023 when states begin the process of ending Medicaid continuous coverage pandemic protections, which allowed beneficiaries to remain enrolled for…
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Fact Sheet: State Fiscal Incentives for Medicaid Expansion Continue After End of Public Health Emergency
The end of the continuous coverage requirement will exacerbate and highlight the coverage gap in the 11 states still refusing the federal Medicaid expansion. Importantly, generous federal fiscal incentives are available to states that newly expand Medicaid. These incentives were enacted in 2020, and will remain available on a permanent basis to those 11 states.…
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Unwinding Wednesday #21: FCC Gives Green Light for MCOs and Other State Medicaid Contractors to Use Text Messaging
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has encouraged states to communicate with enrollees through non-mail means, and text messages and automated calls are an efficient and cost-effective way to contact consumers. But there were concerns about compliance with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), which was enacted to protect consumers from certain practices that…
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Medicaid Managed Care Financial Results for 2022: Another Big Year for the Big Five
The 2022 earnings reports for the “Big Five”—CVS Health (Aetna), Centene, Elevance Health (formerly Anthem), Molina, and United Health Group—are now in. As expected, combined Medicaid enrollment for the “Big Five” increased during 2022 by 3.3 million to 43.2 million, an increase of 8.2 percent (Table 1). (If children are enrolled in “Big Five” MCOs…
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Webinar Series: School Medicaid Matters 2023
Over the next couple of months, CCF will be collaborating with the Healthy Schools Campaign and Community Catalyst to host a series of webinars focused on opportunities to strengthen the role of Medicaid in schools. The series kicked off earlier this month with a webinar featuring former CMS Administrator Vikki Wacchino, who walked through what…
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CCF, Pediatricians Urge State Leaders to Shield Children from Losing Medicaid Coverage
State-by-State Report Shows Medicaid Now Covers More Than Half of U.S. Children This week we teamed up with our colleagues at the American Academy of Pediatrics to release a report and discuss the high stakes for children when the Medicaid continuous coverage protection expires. Medicaid and CHIP now cover 54% of children in the United…
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Unwinding Wednesday #20: All States Must Submit Their Medicaid Continuous Coverage Unwinding Renewal Reports by Today!
Today’s the day! All states are required to submit their state renewal reports to CMS today. States that initiated their first batch of renewals in February were expected to submit their reports on February 1. And all other states are required to submit the reports today. What are the state renewal reports? To better…
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Comments on Oklahoma Medicaid Waiver Extension Application
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families submitted these comments to CMS regarding the Oklahoma Medicaid waiver extension application.
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Comments on Kansas Medicaid Waiver Extension Application
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families submitted these comments to CMS regarding the Kansas Medicaid waiver extension application.
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Comments on New Mexico Medicaid Waiver Extension Application
The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families submitted these comments to CMS regarding the New Mexico Medicaid waiver extension application.
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Unwinding Wednesday #19: What Can Application Processing Times Tell Us About State Readiness for the Unwinding?
In the past, I’ve blogged a lot about the Medicaid and CHIP performance indicators that states have been required to report since 2014. Among those indicators, states must report the share of MAGI-based (i.e., non-disabled, non-elderly Medicaid groups) applications completed in five buckets: less than 24 hours (also known as real-time determination),…
