Medicaid
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Medicaid Continuous Eligibility Linked with Better Health, More Efficient Health Care Spending
Continuous health insurance coverage produces a broad array of benefits across the health care sector for individuals, states, health plans, and providers. In particular, Medicaid continuous eligibility promotes health equity by limiting gaps in coverage for low-income children and adults who experience disproportionate rates of health disparities. Consistent access to health care, including management of…
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Continuous Coverage in Medicaid and CHIP
Executive Summary Continuous health insurance coverage produces a broad array of benefits across the health care sector for individuals, states, health plans, and providers. In particular, Medicaid continuous eligibility promotes health equity by limiting gaps in coverage for low-income children and adults who experience disproportionate rates of health disparities. Consistent access to health care, including…
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Medicaid Managed Care: Transparency Tips for Advocates
In the world of Medicaid managed care, as Ringo might say, transparency don’t come easy. That is one take-away from a lawsuit filed earlier this week by the Better Government Association (BGA), which describes itself as “Illinois’ non-partisan full-service watchdog,” against the state’s Medicaid agency, the Department of Healthcare and Family Services (HFS), which runs…
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A Guide for Child Health Advocates: Medicaid Managed Care Accountability Through Transparency
Medicaid, Managed Care, and Transparency Medicaid is the nation’s largest health insurer for children—over 35 million at last count—and pays for nearly half of the nation’s births. It offers a comprehensive pediatric benefit—Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic, and Treatment (EPSDT) services—for children and comprehensive maternity care for pregnant women. In most states, Medicaid agencies contract…
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American Rescue Plan Offers States Funding to Address Critical Need for Improved Access to Mental Health Services
The American Rescue Plan passed in March included provisions providing states with new funding opportunities to leverage Medicaid to improve access to mental health services. Recent announcements by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) provide states with more information about how they can take advantage of the new opportunities. Section 9817 Additional Support…
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Urgent Action Needed to Catch Up on Routine Childhood Vaccinations
Introduction Vaccines are a safe and effective method of reducing the burden of infectious disease. On an individual level, they prevent severe illness, death, and long-term consequences of disease such as neurological disorders. On the community level, they forestall dangerous outbreaks of infectious disease and save money that would otherwise be spent on treating preventable…
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Opportunities to Improve Guidance on Phasing out the Public Health Emergency Continuous Eligibility Provision
In December 2020, the Trump administration issued guidance on unwinding the Medicaid continuous eligibility provision associated with the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE). There are a number of opportunities for the Biden administration or Congress to strengthen requirements for states to ensure that eligible Medicaid enrollees do not lose coverage at the end of the…
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Critical Bipartisan House Legislation Would Avert Looming Fiscal Cliff for Medicaid Programs in the Territories
Editor’s Note: On July 21, 2021, the full House Energy and Commerce Committee, by voice vote, reported the bipartisan bill (H.R. 4406) to temporarily extend federal Medicaid funding for Puerto Rico and the other territories and avert the fiscal cliff. On Thursday, July 15, 2021, the Health Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee…
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Pandemic Has Taken Unprecedented Toll on Mental Health of Children, More Support Needed
A study released last month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) adds to the mounting evidence that the COVID-19 pandemic has taken an unprecedented toll on children’s mental health. CDC Study Findings According to the findings of the study, emergency department visits by children ages 12 to 17 for suspected suicide attempts…
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Removing Barriers to Health Coverage for Noncitizen Children is Key to Addressing Harmful Health Disparities
This month’s issue of Health Affairs is about borders, immigrants, and health, and there are several pieces focused on health of immigrant children and children in immigrant families. Mariellen Jewers and Leighton Ku’s article, “Noncitizen Children Face Higher Health Harms Compared With Their Siblings Who Have US Citizen Status,” looks at differences in access to…
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Where States Stand on Extended Postpartum Medicaid Coverage
Since the American Rescue Plan passed in March, we’ve been closely following state decisions to take up the important new Medicaid state plan option that allows states to extend postpartum Medicaid and CHIP coverage for 12 months after the end of the pregnancy, well beyond the current federal cutoff of just 60 days postpartum. Because…
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What Can the Biden Administration Do to Promote Health Equity in Medicaid?
The Biden Administration has announced its intention to make health equity and reducing racial disparities a central feature of its policy agenda issuing an Executive Order on day one instructing federal agencies to promote equity in multiple ways. Section 9 of this Executive Order noted that many federal datasets were not disaggregated by race/ethnicity/gender/disability etc.,…
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Medicaid Expansion Could Narrow Health Coverage Gaps for Latino Families
COVID-19 has exposed and exacerbated longstanding health coverage disparities for Latino families, even as many Latino workers put themselves and their families at greater risk while continuing to work in essential roles to support their communities during the pandemic. These coverage disparities persist across the country, but are wider and growing faster in states that…
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Expanding Medicaid Would Help Close Coverage Gap for Latino Children and Parents
Introduction The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has lowered the uninsured rate for children and families nationally, but its impact varies across the country based on whether a state has adopted the ACA’s Medicaid expansion to cover more adults.1 For Latino children and families, Medicaid serves an especially important role; while Latinos are more likely to…
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A Profile of Florida’s Low-Wage Uninsured Workers
The recently enacted American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP) includes new large financial incentives for states to extend health insurance coverage to low-wage workers and other adults earning less than $17,775 a year.¹ These incentives apply to regular spending in a state’s Medicaid program and offer a five-percentage point across the board increase in the…
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States Could Have the Opportunity to Bolster and Speed Up Coverage for Former Foster Care Youth
Longtime readers of Say Ahh! and fellow health policy wonks will know that one of the most bipartisan provisions of the Affordable Care Act extended Medicaid coverage for youth aging out of the foster care system until age 26 if they were enrolled before their 18th birthday. (If not, Tricia Brooks has chronicled all the…
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Medicaid Managed Care: Transparency, Procurement, and Children’s Health
Last month, Children Now released a report on the delivery of preventive health services to children by Medicaid managed care organizations (MCOs) in California. The report analyzes MCO-specific performance data for 2019 for five different measures: well-child visits in the first 15 months of life; child and adolescent well-child visits; lead screening for children under…
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A Profile of South Dakota’s Low-Wage Uninsured Workers
The recently enacted American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP) includes new large financial incentives for states to extend health insurance coverage to low-wage workers and other adults earning less than $17,775 a year.¹ These incentives apply to regular spending in a state’s Medicaid program and offer a five-percentage point across the board increase in the…
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A Profile of South Carolina’s Low-Wage Uninsured Workers
The recently enacted American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP) includes new large financial incentives for states to extend health insurance coverage to low-wage workers and other adults earning less than $17,775 a year.¹ These incentives apply to regular spending in a state’s Medicaid program and offer a five-percentage point across the board increase in the…
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Getting Back on Track: A Detailed Look at Health Coverage Trends for Latino Children
Introduction From 2008 to 2016, the Latino child uninsured rate fell steadily, eventually achieving a historic low of 7.7 percent in 2016.1 Although this rate was still higher than that for non-Latino children, the decline signaled steady progress towards narrowing health coverage disparities between Latino children and their peers. However, as the overall child uninsured…
