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Medicaid

  • CMS Releases Telehealth Toolkit with Special Emphasis on Pediatrics

    Tricia Brooks

    The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly disrupted access to health care as providers scramble to up their game in regard to telehealth. To assist states and stakeholders in advancing the use of telehealth, CMS has released a Medicaid and CHIP Telehealth Toolkit with a special emphasis on pediatrics. The toolkit is intended to help identify state-level…

  • COVID-19 Medicaid Waiver Soup Explained

    Andy Schneider

    Over the past month there has been an explosion of Medicaid waiver activity relating to the COVID-19 pandemic.  This activity is not to be confused with the implosion of the Medicaid section 1115 work requirements waivers, which would undermine coverage.  Instead, the COVID-related waivers are designed to help state Medicaid programs respond to the pandemic,…

  • Getting MAGI Right: Do COVID-19 Stimulus Payments and Extra Unemployment Count toward Medicaid Eligibility?

    Tricia Brooks

    The most popular blogs I’ve ever written were part of a 2015 series about Getting MAGI right. At the time, MAGI was a little understood acronym for Modified Adjusted Gross Income, which changed the way income and household size is counted for Medicaid and CHIP eligibility for children, pregnant women, parents and expansion adults. As…

  • Uninsured and Unemployed? Medicaid and CHIP Provide Lifelines to Families in Need

    Cathy Hope

    In these tough times, when so many people have lost their jobs and and their health insurance, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) are lifelines families can turn to for help covering the cost of health care.  Medicaid and CHIP provide free or low-cost health coverage for children and pregnant women with low…

  • Now is the Time to Remove CHIP Waiting Periods and Welcome Kids into Coverage

    Tricia Brooks

    While maintenance of effort (MOE) provisions in the Families First Coronavirus Response Act and long-standing MOE requirements for children prevent states from implementing any new eligibility or enrollment barriers, states should also be taking steps to remove existing barriers to coverage, including CHIP waiting periods. Before the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) coverage expansions were implemented…

  • Approved Disaster Relief SPAs Reduce Burdens on Beneficiaries

    Allexa Gardner

    CMS has begun approving states’ disaster relief State Plan Amendments in response to the COVID-19 crisis. As my colleague Tricia Brooks recently described, these SPAs allow states to make temporary changes to eligibility, enrollment, and cost-sharing policies among others flexibilities. It is important to note that the changes requested, and subsequently approved, in the disaster…

  • Pandemic Induced Pragmatism: The State of Medicaid Waiver Policy

    Joan Alker

    Amongst other ways in which life has dramatically changed in the last month, Section 1115 Medicaid waiver terrain has experienced a tectonic shift. For those of us who have been responding to massive numbers of public comment periods over the past two-plus years, only one waiver opened for public comment that we are commenting on…

  • Medicaid and CHIP Eligibility Verification Flexibilities Help States Keep up with Increased Application Volume due to COVID-19

    Tricia Brooks

    As more and more Americans file unemployment claims, we can expect an increase in Medicaid applications. This increased demand comes at a time when Medicaid eligibility enterprises are challenged with transitioning eligibility workers to telework and may be experiencing workforce shortages due to worker illness or family caretaking responsibilities resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. But…

  • Recent Medicaid Expansion Activity in Eight States during the COVID-19 Crisis

    Adam Searing

    As states respond to the COVID-19 crisis, those that have yet to expand Medicaid are facing rising calls to reverse their opposition and quickly provide affordable health care to millions of residents. The oncoming double hit to states of rising numbers of residents needing advanced, expensive health care coupled with truly staggering job losses –…

  • States Should Accept all Federal Funding Already on Table to Fill as Many Health Coverage Gaps as Possible While Pressing for More

    Kelly Whitener

    States are under tremendous pressure to continue to provide essential services even as resources dwindle, underscoring the importance of the 6.2 percentage point increase in the federal medical assistance percentage (FMAP) in the Families First Coronavirus Response legislation Congress passed last month. Unfortunately, the health and economic consequences of this pandemic necessitate an even bolder…

  • Solution to Maternal Health Crisis Must Center on Medicaid

    Maggie Clark

    Earlier this month, CCF submitted comments to the Senate Finance Committee with recommendations to reduce maternal mortality and morbidity and help mothers and babies thrive together.  At the heart of our comments was this: Medicaid must be at the center of any efforts to solve to this crisis. Here’s why. Medicaid paid for nearly half…

  • COVID-19 and Immigrant Health

    Kelly Whitener

    Now, more than ever, it’s critical that everyone has access to health coverage. The only way to effectively respond to a pandemic is to make sure that everyone can get the screening and treatment they need. Unfortunately, even with three new laws to address the COVID-19 public health emergency, there are still gaps in coverage,…

  • Medicaid, CHIP, and COVID-19 Webinar

    CCFadmin

    https://sqps.onstreamsecure.com/origin/InfiniteConferencing/Web%20Recordings/DatedRecordings/040720/Georgetown/040720GEORGETOWN.mp4 Download the slide deck.

  • The Rate of Uninsured Infants and Toddlers is Growing. Don’t Let COVID-19 Pandemic Make Things Worse

    Elisabeth Wright Burak

    Three+ weeks into my at-home work existence with a fellow teleworking spouse, a 3rd grader and a preschooler and I’ve found a new base level of stress, despite yoga, workouts, mediation and ALL of the deep breaths. It’s hard. And yet our family is among the luckiest of Americans. We are safe and healthy. We…

  • Kids Lose Access to Critical Health Care Source When Schools Shutter Due to COVID-19

    Phyllis Jordan

    In some schools, nurses deliver the first dose of asthma medicine to students who need it every morning. In others, dentist technicians show up to clean children’s teeth and look for cavities. Across the country, school-based physical and mental health therapists support students with disabilities. With more than 120,000 schools nationwide shuttered for the foreseeable…

  • Medicaid Work Requirements and COVID-19: The Wheels Come Off

    Andy Schneider

    The wheels have come off of the CMS Administrator’s work requirements bus tour. Ill-conceived from the start, the Administrator’s effort to “reframe” Medicaid  has been brought to an abrupt halt by the COVID-19 pandemic, the resulting economic collapse, and the Congressional response, which prohibits states from disenrolling resident Medicaid beneficiaries for any reason, including work…

  • Pandemic Puts Need for Improved Access to Affordable Health Coverage into Sharper Focus

    Adam Searing

    I’ve spent my career in health care policy, working to make sure families have easy access to quality health care. As such, I’m acutely aware of the difference between individuals getting access to affordable health coverage versus public health overall, the effort to maintain and improve the health of populations. And with the COVID-19 pandemic…

  • Much of the Fiscal Relief Provided to States for COVID-19 Could be Canceled Out if Trump Administration’s Medicaid “MFAR” Rule Is Finalized

    Edwin Park

    Congress included substantial fiscal relief for states in both the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (P.L. 116-127) and the CARES Act (P.L. 116-136).  Families First temporarily increased the federal Medicaid matching rate (FMAP) by 6.2 percentage points for all states and territories starting January 1, 2020 through the end of the public health emergency.  That…

  • The CARES Act: A Missed Opportunity to Help State Medicaid and CHIP Programs Protect People and Public Health

    Andy Schneider

    Today (March 27) the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, was approved by the House of Representatives by a voice vote after clearing the Senate by 97-0. It is now on its way to the President’s desk to be signed into law.  This is the third Congressional response (to date) to the COVID-19…

  • Families First Coronavirus Response Act: Impact on Pregnant Women Covered by Medicaid and CHIP

    Kelly Whitener

    As we continue to unpack the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, we thought we’d take a closer look at how the bill will impact pregnant women covered by Medicaid and CHIP. First, some important background. Eligibility. Medicaid and CHIP offer multiple coverage pathways for pregnant women, including mandatory and optional coverage groups. Medicaid requires coverage…