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Medicaid

  • Four years of RAPID Survey Project Highlights Young Families’ Biggest Stressors: Child Care, Housing, Health Care

    Hannah Green

    Last month, Stanford Center on Early Childhood released its four-year anniversary report on findings of its RAPID Survey Project. The report detailed the top concerns and stressors felt by parents and providers of young children across the country. The leading concerns? Child care, housing, and health care. The RAPID Survey Project began in response to…

  • The Unwinding: It’s Not Over Until It’s Over

    Hannah Green

    Recently, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) put out a list of the estimated month in which states will finish processing renewals for individuals who were covered when the pandemic-era Medicaid continuous enrollment requirement was lifted and had not been renewed in the past year. While originally it was expected that all states…

  • 2024 Survey of Medicaid and CHIP Eligibility, Enrollment, and Renewal Policies Shows Gains in Child and Maternal Health Coverage

    Hannah Green

    Highlights of the 2024 Survey of Medicaid and CHIP Eligibility, Enrollment, and Renewal Policies, conducted by KFF and Georgetown CCF, were presented in a webinar today featuring federal and state officials from North Carolina and Ohio. This marks the 22nd annual report on state policies for eligibility, enrollment, and renewal processes, which this year includes…

  • Back to Basics: Effective State Medicaid and CHIP Outreach to Families Doesn’t Need to be Complicated

    Hannah Green

    In this series, we’ve been diving deeper into our outreach snapshot to look at more state-based examples that we find compelling. Though they may seem disparate, this installment covers some of the most quintessential outreach activities included in the research. First up: videos focused on outreach to individuals and families, such as who is eligible…

  • A Look at Medicaid and CHIP Eligibility, Enrollment, and Renewal Policies During the Unwinding of Continuous Enrollment and Beyond

    Hannah Green

    Executive Summary In early 2023, states began final preparations for the end of the pandemic-related Medicaid continuous enrollment provision following passage of the Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) of 2023, which lifted the requirement effective March 31, 2023. During the three-year pause on Medicaid disenrollments, Medicaid and CHIP enrollment grew by 32% from 71.3 million to…

  • Project 2025 Blueprint Also Includes Draconian Cuts to Medicaid

    Edwin Park

    Last year, conservative organizations led by the Heritage Foundation unveiled a “Project 2025” policy agenda for a potential second term of the Trump Administration. While the overall Project 2025 plan has received growing media attention in recent weeks, its proposals to radically restructure and deeply cut Medicaid have largely flown under the radar. While lacking…

  • For-Profit MCOs in Minnesota Medicaid: No More Welcome Mat

    Andy Schneider

    Like 41 other states, Minnesota requires most of those enrolled in its Medicaid program to receive services through managed care organizations (MCOs).  Unlike most other states, however, Minnesota is in the midst of a policy conversation about whether to move away from managed care toward fee-for-service.  In May 2023, the state legislature directed the Medicaid…

  • The unlikely new defenders of (at least part of) the Affordable Care Act? Opponents of Medicaid Expansion!

    Adam Searing

    There are many good reasons Republicans formerly opposed to Medicaid expansion have changed their minds and worked toward bipartisan solutions to extend health care. My colleague Jade Little and I detailed this in North Carolina where a bipartisan bill expanding Medicaid overwhelmingly passed last year with support from political pragmatists of both parties, citing the…

  • Maternal Mortality Rates Decreased in 2022, but Disparities Persist

    Aubrianna Osorio

    Last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released new data indicating that national maternal mortality rates (MMR) fell significantly in 2022. Compared to 2021, the number of maternal deaths fell from 1,205 to 817 overall and the rate fell from 32.9 to 22.3 deaths per 100,000 live births. These new data suggest…

  • Social Media: A Critical Tool for States to Leverage as Unwinding Winds Down

    Hannah Green

    It is no secret that social media is one of the most powerful tools state Medicaid and CHIP agencies can employ when attempting to reach out to eligible individuals. Over 70% of adults ages 18–64 use at least one social media site, and targeted outreach on these platforms could help spread the word about programs…

  • HHS Selects 10 States to Participate in Medicaid Behavioral Health Clinic Demonstration

    Anne Dwyer

    Today, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced 10 new states have been selected to participate in the Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic Medicaid Demonstration – Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Rhode Island and Vermont. The Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic (CCBHC) Medicaid Demonstration was created in…

  • How Families’ Medicaid Unwinding Experience Can Help Us Advance Health Equity

    Guest

    By: Kristen Golden Testa, Policy Director at The Children’s Partnership In California, more than half of children get health coverage through Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program. Medi-Cal is a critical support system for California families with low incomes, providing children access to the care they need for a healthy start in life. As nearly 75%…

  • Introduction to Medicaid and CHIP Outreach Snapshot Blog Series

    Hannah Green

    We recently released our snapshot of state Medicaid and CHIP outreach activities, just as a number of states are in the final stages of the unwinding and getting people reconnected to coverage becomes more important than ever. While the report provides in-depth analysis into state-provided outreach resources and enrollment assistance, we are also writing a…

  • Strengthened Tool to Address Health-Related Social Needs: The New Medicaid Managed Care Regulation’s “In Lieu of Services” Explained

    Hannah Green

    Medicaid managed care plans have long covered “In Lieu of Services” (ILOS), which are services that are provided in substitution of traditional Medicaid state plan services. For example, a managed care plan might provide a community-based depression screening in lieu of an office visit screening. In 2016, CMS first defined the contours of ILOS in…

  • New Rule Seeks to Improve Transparency of State Medicaid Provider Payment Rates

    Kelly Whitener

    CMS recently finalized two key regulations: “Ensuring Access to Medicaid Services” (Access Rule) and “Medicaid, CHIP Managed Care Access, Finance, and Quality” (Managed Care Rule), aimed at improving access to care in Medicaid across delivery systems (fee-for-service and managed care) and authorities (state plan and waiver services). The rules are long and complex; we’ve summarized…

  • Delaware and Tennessee Become First States to Cover Diapers for Young Children in Medicaid through Section 1115 Demonstrations

    Allexa Gardner

    Last week, CMS announced the approval of section 1115 demonstration project requests from Delaware and Tennessee to provide diapers to young children covered by Medicaid. These approvals mark the first time a state has been authorized to cover diapers for infants in Medicaid regardless of medical necessity due to incontinence issues. Under federal statute, section…

  • Medicaid Managed Care: Results of the PHE Unwinding for the Big Five in Q1 2024

    Andy Schneider

    It’s now been four corporate reporting quarters since the start of the PHE unwinding on April 1, 2023. During that time, net national Medicaid enrollment—the combination of disenrollments from redeterminations, re-enrollment by some of those terminated, and new enrollments—has fallen by 13.1 million, including 5.0 million children. Of the disenrollments, 70 percent have been for…

  • Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024: Medicaid and CHIP Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Provisions Explained

    Anne Dwyer

    Download the Full Report Here On March 9, 2024, President Biden signed into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024 (P.L. 118-42). The Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024 (CAA 2024) includes a number of Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) provisions related to mental health and substance use disorder (SUD) care and coverage including provisions extending…

  • A Closer Look at Transparency in the Medicaid Managed Care Rule

    Andy Schneider

    The Medicaid Managed Care Rule published on May 10 has lots of moving parts. As my colleague Leo Cuello explains, the rule includes provisions to increase the transparency of state directed payments (SDPs). The rule also contains a number of other transparency requirements that are the focus of this blog, most of which are identical to those…