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Medicaid

  • 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…

  • Georgetown University’s CCF Weighs in on Proposed Changes to Managed Care Rule

    Andy Schneider

    Last November, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed changes to its Medicaid Managed Care Rule.  As I explained at the time, these proposals can be seen as part of a broader effort by the agency to weaken access protections for children, parents, and other Medicaid beneficiaries, not just in managed care, but…

  • Help Shape Child and Adolescent Health Priorities by Submitting Comments on Healthy People 2030

    Candace Webb

    Planning is now underway for Healthy People 2030 and advocates have an opportunity to help shape child and adolescent health priorities for the next decade. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is soliciting written comments on the proposed objectives for Healthy People 2030 until 5:00 p.m. ET on Thursday, January 17, 2019.…

  • Oklahoma’s Medicaid Waiver Proposal Will Harm Its Most Vulnerable Families

    Joan Alker

    Unfortunately, our series of reports looking at harmful state Medicaid work requirement rules targeting very poor parents is getting longer. Today we are releasing an updated look at Oklahoma’s proposal, which is currently up for public comment at the federal level.  Six states now have active proposals – Mississippi, Alabama, and South Dakota have proposals…

  • Medicaid Waiver Proposal For Oklahoma Medicaid Beneficiaries Would Harm Low-Income Families With Children

    Joan Alker

    Introduction Through an amendment to its Section 1115 Medicaid demonstration waiver, Oklahoma is seeking federal permission to impose work reporting rules on very low-income parents and caregivers age 19-50 receiving health coverage through Medicaid. Parents of children below age six would be exempt. Under the proposal, which would be phased in, these beneficiaries would have…

  • New CCF Issue Brief on Strengthening Effective Medicaid Drug Rebate Program

    Edwin Park

    Today, we issued our fifth issue brief in our Future of Children’s Health Coverage series. It focuses on how to build upon and improve the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program at both the federal and state levels in order to help state Medicaid programs better address their rising prescription drug costs.  This, in turn, would ensure continued…