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Medicaid

  • Vikki Wachino Appointed to Officially Replace Cindy Mann at CMS

    Joan Alker

    I am so happy to see that Vikki Wachino has accepted the position of Director for the Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services (CMCS) at CMS. Vikki stepped into the role of Acting Director when Cindy Mann left the agency in January. Children’s health advocates will recall Vikki’s tenure as Director of the Children and…

  • Armstrong v. Exceptional Child—The Supreme Court’s “Fairest Reading” Really Isn’t Fair

    Guest

    By Jane Perkins, Legal Director of National Health Law Program In 2009, the Exceptional Child Center and other providers of in-home supportive services for people with disabilities sued the Idaho Medicaid Director, Richard Armstrong, on the grounds that they were not being paid enough. According to the record in the case, the state set the providers’ rates…

  • New Resource From CMS on Medicaid Managed Care

    Alisa Chester

    Recently, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid services (CMS) released a wealth of information on Medicaid managed care, including guidance on managed care contracts and state-by-state profiles. The updated website section includes an overview of managed care delivery systems and regulations. In addition, the technical support tab provides a state guide to CMS criteria for…

  • Report: Many Working Parents & Families Would Benefit if Florida Said Yes to Medicaid

    Joan Alker

    I’m happy to be visiting Tallahassee today during “Children’s Week” just as Florida’s lawmakers are facing one of the most consequential decisions they could make for Florida’s children and working families. To help lawmakers understand what’s at stake, today we released a report with the Kids Well coalition explaining how expanding Medicaid would help uninsured…

  • Many Working Parents and Families in Florida Would Benefit from Closing the Coverage Gap

    Joan Alker

    The U.S. has made significant progress in decreasing rates of uninsurance for parents and adults. However, many low-income families in Florida still struggle to obtain health coverage. In 2013 (prior to the Affordable Care Act’s major coverage provisions), there were over 3.9 million people living without health insurance coverage in Florida, accounting for 8.5 percent (1…

  • New Study Documents Positive Long-Term Effects of Medicaid Coverage

    Alisa Chester

    A new study from the University of Wisconsin’s Institute for Research on Poverty provides further evidence that the Medicaid expansions in the 1980s and 1990s have positive long-term effects for children. The IRP study, conducted by researchers from the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies, found that expanding Medicaid eligibility for pregnant women improves…

  • Fact-checking the Florida Medicaid Debate

    Joan Alker

    There continues to be confusion and misinformation abounding in Florida on the issue of federal Medicaid funding. This year the state is giving up approximately $5 billion in federal funds that are available under the Affordable Care Act to extend Medicaid coverage to uninsured Floridians at no cost to the state. The only reason that…

  • Access to Care in CHIP & Medicaid Strong (CCF’s C-SPAN Debut!)

    Elisabeth Wright Burak

    This week started out on a high, since I had the pleasure of heading over to C-SPAN’s Washington Journal to talk about my favorite topic of late: the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). (Shout out to my father, Larry Wright, who is arguably CSPAN’s #1 fan in Arkansas and could have only been more excited…

  • Report: Overlap Issuers Could Narrow Coverage Gaps, Mitigate Churn

    Guest

    By Margaret A. Murray, CEO and Jennifer Mcguigan Babcock, VP for Exchange Policy Association for Community Affiliated Plans Last month, our organization – the Association for Community Affiliated Plans (ACAP) – issued a study that found that about 4 in 10 organizations offering coverage through Qualified Health Plans (QHP) in Health Insurance Marketplaces operate a…

  • ACA Turns Five: Reflecting on the Past and Looking Forward to the Future

    CCFadmin

    By Sean Miskell Since the Affordable Care Act (ACA) became law five years ago today, health reform has unfolded in fits and starts amid political opposition and staggered implementation of its insurance market reforms and coverage expansions. But as a result of these occasionally frantic first years of implementation, children and families now have improved…

  • What’s at stake without a quick, clean renewal of CHIP funding? Our historic success covering kids.

    Elisabeth Wright Burak

    A timely analysis from our friends at the Urban Institute this week quantifies the high stakes of the current deal making around CHIP. The outcome, along with the looming Supreme Court decision, will determine whether we move backwards on our success covering children or maintain the strong system of coverage that has successfully served low-income…

  • Medicaid Block Grant Plan Resurfaces in Budget Proposals – Would Shift Costs to States

    CCFadmin

    By Sean Miskell Though my creative side longs to contribute novel analysis and insight to the health policy world, too often reality makes doing so difficult. Such is the case this week, as both the House and Senate Budget Committee have submitted proposals that would restructure Medicaid as a block grant to states and repeal…

  • Florida Consumer Reporter Takes on Complicated Task of Explaining the Coverage Gap

    Cathy Hope

    Say Ahhh! is excited to welcome Florida Legal Services to the health policy blogosphere.  The new blog will focus on issues surrounding the Affordable Care Act, Medicaid expansion, and Medicaid Managed Care in Florida.  Contributors include staff members working on health law throughout the state of Florida.  Please check out this fantastic new resource for those…

  • Florida Senate Comes Out Swinging to Close the Coverage Gap

    Joan Alker

    Last week the Florida legislature began its regular session – scheduled to end in the first week in May. As regular readers of Say Ahhh!! know, I have been expecting a more robust debate there this year due to the expiration of the Low Income Pool funding that Florida receives through its Section 1115 waiver…

  • NBER Report: Childhood Medicaid Coverage Leads to Better Health Outcomes

    Alisa Chester

    A new study joins a growing body of literature that sheds light on the long-term benefits and cost savings of expanding access to public health insurance. In “Childhood Medicaid Coverage and Later Life Health Care Utilization,” a working paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), the authors conclude that expanding Medicaid eligibility…

  • “Stairstep” Children Moved from CHIP to Medicaid Receive Better, More Affordable Coverage

    CCFadmin

    The Affordable Care Act (ACA) aligned coverage for more than half a million low-income, school-aged children in 22 states that were previously covered under different programs. Prior to 2014, state Medicaid programs were required to cover children of different age groups at different minimum income eligibility thresholds. Young children under age six with family incomes up…

  • Employed and Uninsured: Many Uninsured Working Adults Would Benefit from Medicaid Expansion

    CCFadmin

    As states considering Medicaid expansion explore their options in program design, work requirements have surfaced as part of the debate. While work requirements perhaps serve as a strong talking point in reluctant states, a recent report from the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured finds that the majority of those who stand to benefit…

  • Early Returns From Iowa’s Health and Wellness Plan: Are Healthy Behavior Programs Working?

    Joan Alker

    Being healthier is a good thing, so it’s appealing for policymakers to insert the issue into their Medicaid expansion debates but so far healthy behavior programs set up by states for their Medicaid beneficiaries are producing more talking points and red-tape than results. It’s still early  though, so we will keep watching, but count me…

  • Medicaid Expansion in Utah: Good for Working Parents & Kids

    Alisa Chester

    In Utah, where one in ten children lack health insurance coverage, extending Medicaid coverage for parents is an effective strategy to boost children’s enrollment rates. Governor Gary Herbert’s proposed Healthy Utah Plan would expand Medicaid eligibility and insure tens of thousands of low-income adults. Uninsured parents account for over one-third of the population potentially eligible…

  • Utah Parents and Families Would Benefit from Medicaid Expansion

    CCFadmin

    Working parents would receive significant help with health insurance costs if Utah moves forward with Governor Gary Herbert’s Healthy Utah plan, according to new research by Utah Voices for Children and Georgetown University’s Center for Children and Families. More than two-thirds (68%) of the low-income uninsured parents that could benefit from the Healthy Utah plan…