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Medicaid

  • It’s Time to Focus on the Future of Children’s Health Coverage

    Joan Alker

    With the bad news that the nation’s uninsured rate for children went in the wrong direction for the first time in nearly a decade, it’s time for kid’s health to get back to the top of the agenda for policymakers. Here at CCF, we’re reinvigorating a project we started a few years ago that aims…

  • Uninsured Children in the United States

    CCFadmin

    Researchers at the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families publish this report annually. 2018 Nation’s Progress on Children’s Health Coverage Reverses Course 2017 Nationwide Rate of Uninsured Children Reaches Historic Low 2016 Children’s Health Coverage Rate Now at Historic High of 95 Percent 2015 ACA Helps Bring Child Uninsured Rate Down To New Record…

  • First Round of Arkansas 2019 Medicaid Data Shows More Coverage Losses Are on the Way

    Joan Alker

    Last week, the state of Arkansas released its latest round of data on implementation of its Medicaid work reporting requirement – the first in the country to be implemented. As readers of SayAhhh! know, over 18,000 lost coverage in 2018 as a result of not complying with the new reporting rules. And the policy is…

  • CMS Administrator Ignores Congressional Advisory Committee Recommendation

    Andy Schneider

    In 2009, Congress created the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC) to advise it on coverage for low-income Americans through Medicaid and CHIP.  One of MACPAC’s statutory responsibilities is to “review and assess…Medicaid and CHIP eligibility policies, including a determination of the degree to which federal and state policies provide health care coverage…

  • Designed to Fail: Utah’s Backdoor Repeal of Voter-Approved Medicaid Expansion

    Adam Searing

    In November 2018, a majority of voters in Utah passed a Medicaid expansion ballot initiative providing Medicaid health coverage to low-income parents and other adults. For example, a family of three with an annual income of less than $29,435/year would be eligible.  Voters also approved a very small (0.15 percent) sales tax to pay for…

  • Top 10 Rural Counties Where Kids Rely on Medicaid for Health Coverage

    Joan Alker

    As readers of SayAhhh! know, Georgetown University CCF and the University of North Carolina’s Sheps Rural Health Research Center has a joint project which has been tracking the role of Medicaid for rural areas and small towns. We recently updated our online data resource with county figures for 2015/2016, a time period during which the impact…

  • Clearing Up Confusion about the Medicaid Rebate Program: Part III

    Edwin Park

    As federal efforts to address prescription drug costs intensifies, this three-part blog series addresses misleading claims or confusion about Medicaid, its highly effective drug rebate program and overall drug pricing issues in the hopes of better informing the debate moving forward. Part I | Part II Medicaid’s best price requirement is not the reason why…

  • CMS Innovation Center releases anticipated funding opportunities focused on children: Will your state apply?

    Elisabeth Wright Burak

    Say Ahhh! readers are familiar with one of our biggest concerns about health care payment and delivery system reforms: Kids, relatively inexpensive to begin with, are often overlooked and rarely the explicit focus. It’s hard to make improvements to health care for children and youth without payment or delivery system changes. And testing new reforms…

  • A Troubling Sign: Half a Million Fewer Kids Covered by Medicaid and CHIP in 2018

    Tricia Brooks

    Recent news of declines in enrollment in Medicaid, the growth in uninsured children and troubles with new eligibility systems in several states prompted me to take a closer look at the recently updated October 2018 Medicaid and CHIP enrollment numbers posted by CMS. As we had feared, the data shows that in the first ten…

  • Clearing Up Confusion about the Medicaid Rebate Program: Part II

    Edwin Park

    As federal efforts to address prescription drug costs intensifies, this three-part blog series addresses misleading claims or confusion about Medicaid, its highly effective drug rebate program and overall drug pricing issues in the hopes of better informing the debate moving forward.  Part I | Part III Aggressive negotiation and closed formularies are only one factor in…

  • Clearing Up Confusion about the Medicaid Rebate Program: Part I

    Edwin Park

    As federal efforts to address prescription drug costs intensify, this three-part blog series addresses misleading claims or confusion about Medicaid, its highly effective drug rebate program and overall drug pricing issues in the hopes of better informing the debate moving forward. Part II | Part III In response to federal Medicaid rebate increases, drug manufacturers would…

  • Pediatricians are an Important Ally in Efforts to Reduce Chronic Absenteeism

    Phyllis Jordan

    The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recently released guidance for its 67,000 doctors on how to help children and families improve school attendance. The policy statement, authored by pediatricians Mandy A. Allison and Elliot Attisha of the organization’s Council on School Health, urges doctors to speak with children and families during office visits about the importance of…

  • Risks to Medicaid Surface in Drug Pricing Debate

    Edwin Park

    As the debate over prescription drug pricing heats up, I have been worried for a while that some of the federal policy solutions being considered in Congress and in the Administration could adversely affect Medicaid and its highly effective rebate program, whether inadvertently or intentionally.  This could result in higher Medicaid drug costs, reduced beneficiary…

  • Research Update: Evidence Suggests Medicaid Expansion Increases Access to Treatments for Opioid Use Disorder

    CCFadmin

    In the past year, my colleagues at Georgetown University CCF have blogged about increases in funding to fight the opioid epidemic, Medicaid’s critical role in caring for infants exposed to opioids in utero, as well as Medicaid doubling the likelihood that Americans with opioid addiction will get the treatment they need. A new research report…

  • CMS Weighing Decision that Would Lead to Loss of Health Coverage for Thousands of Tennessee Families Living in Poverty

    Joan Alker

    Tennessee, a state that has not accepted the option to expand Medicaid to more low-income adults, has become the fifth state to ask CMS to impose a work or community service reporting requirement on parents with incomes at or below 98% of the federal poverty level. South Carolina is next in the queue. If the…

  • Work Reporting Requirement for Tennessee Parents Would Harm Low-Income Families with Children

    Joan Alker

    Introduction Tennessee is seeking federal permission to impose a work reporting requirement on low-income parents and caregivers receiving health coverage through Medicaid. Under the proposal, these beneficiaries ages 19 to 64 would have to document that they are working at least 20 hours a week or participating in job-training, education, or volunteer activities in order…

  • More Funds, Better Data Needed to Help Medicaid Patients

    News Article

    Medpage Today January 22, 2019 By; Joyce Frieden Have you ever used the Z56 code to describe one of your Medicaid patients? How about Z59? … The report seems to do a good job of taking stock of the need and what current efforts are being made in Medicaid to address social needs, Tricia Brooks, MBA,…

  • How Are States Using Medicaid to Pay for Home Visiting? New Paper Offers More Clarity

    Elisabeth Wright Burak

    As we’ve sought to identify concrete ways Medicaid can better support young children’s development, one of the clearest opportunities of high interest to policymakers is expanding home visiting programs for pregnant women and young children. Using Medicaid for home visiting is not a new concept, but a number of factors have raised the profile of…

  • Arkansas’ Medicaid Work Reporting Rules Lead to Staggering Health Coverage Losses

    Joan Alker

    Earlier this week, the state of Arkansas released its final round of data for 2018 for its controversial work reporting requirement policy. The data shows that an additional 1,232 adults lost their Medicaid coverage at the end of December, bringing the total Medicaid coverage loss since August to 18,164. The news motivated me to take…