Medicaid
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New Data Shows Some Privatized Medicaid Plans Shut Out the Sickest
By Marsha Simon, Ph.D. Two days before the start of the new year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services sent a letter to Iowa’s Medicaid Director informing her that Iowa’s request to expand Medicaid by using federal funds (provided under the Affordable Care Act) to purchase private insurance was officially approved. A little noticed piece of…
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New Hampshire Senate Opens Door to Medicaid Expansion
It’s still cold here in New Hampshire, with more than a foot of hard-packed snow covering the ground. But that didn’t stop the Republican-led Senate from warming up to the idea of expanding Medicaid to cover an estimated 50,000 Granite Staters. The proposal moves over to the House, where representatives are expected to support the…
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President Obama’s Budget Proposes Permanent Extension of Express Lane Eligibility
By Tara Mancini This week, the Administration reinforced its support for Express Lane Eligibility by including its permanent extension in the proposed FY 2015 budget. As many Say Ahhh! readers know, without further authorization, this effective enrollment strategy is set to expire at the end of September. Other notable extensions in Medicaid and CHIP include:…
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NASHP Releases New Resource on Medicaid Benefits for Children
By Joe Touschner Along with ICHIA and SLMB, one of the more inscrutable acronyms in health policy is EPSDT. Even those who know it stands for Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis, and Treatment may not know exactly who it is for and what it entails. Worse, although it is a federal policy that applies in…
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Pennsylvania Medicaid Expansion Waiver Now Open for Public Comment
It’s official! Pennsylvania’s Section 1115 Medicaid Research and Demonstration waiver application has been certified as complete by the federal government and is now open for a 30-day comment period. This is basically the list of concessions Governor Corbett wants from CMS in exchange for accepting ACA Medicaid funding to cover more uninsured Pennsylvanians. The proposal…
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FMAP Guidance on 12-Month Continuous Eligibility for Adults
By Martha Heberlein Way back in May, CMS put out guidance on five strategies designed to make it easier for Medicaid-eligible folks to connect to coverage. You’ve probably heard that several of these have been incredibly successful, including in Arkansas and California. And while 35 states have picked up one or more of the five,…
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Florida is Leaving 764,000 Uncovered and Giving Up $7 Million Per Day
Editor’s Note: To listen to the webinar hosted by the Florida Philanthropic Network on this topic, visit this site. I just returned from a briefing in Tallahassee sponsored by the Florida Philanthropic Network on Medicaid where I released a new factsheet. I presented some key findings – noted below – and a terrific panel…
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Florida’s Medicaid Choice: Options and Implications
In 2013, the Florida Legislature chose not to expand Medicaid to those with incomes below 133% of the federal poverty line. Consequently, Florida today is among 24 states that are not receiving federal Medicaid expansion funding. As the 2014 Legislative session nears, the question of whether to accept the federal Medicaid dollars likely will be debated again. This…
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It Takes Time to Reduce Emergency Room Use
By Tara Mancini Last month, another round of results were released by the Oregon Health Insurance Experiment (OHIE). The examination found that emergency department (ED) use increased by 40 percent among those who were enrolled in Medicaid compared to the control group. The results raised an important and obvious question: what would ED usage look…
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Overlap Between Medicaid MCO’s, Marketplace Plans Could Smooth a Rough Edge of Health Reform
Margaret A. Murray and Jennifer Babcock, Association for Community Affiliated Plans In late January, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) made public figures showing that more than three million people had enrolled in health plans offering coverage through Health Insurance Marketplaces in the last three months of 2013. Many have selected a Qualified…
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Arkansas ‘Private Option’ Model Doesn’t Make Sense for Pennsylvania
As readers of SayAhhh! know, Governor Corbett of Pennsylvania is currently revising a Section 1115 Medicaid waiver proposal to extend Medicaid coverage to the newly eligible low-income adults in his state. That would be great news if it weren’t such a problematic proposal (as I have blogged about before). The state took public comments on…
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How Do Updated 2014 Federal Poverty Level Thresholds Impact Medicaid, CHIP & Premium Tax Credit Eligibility?
By Martha Heberlein Updated 2014 federal poverty thresholds were released on January 22nd and inquiring minds have been asking what they mean in terms of determining eligibility for Medicaid, CHIP, and premium tax credits. And the answer, as with so many things in our world is, “well, it depends.” Let’s start with premium tax credits…
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SNAP! And 153,000 California Children Can Get No-Cost Health Insurance Without an Application
By Kristen Golden Testa, The Children’s Partnership Imagine your infant has a high fever and you want to bring her to the doctor but don’t have health insurance. Or your young child can’t concentrate at school due to a tooth ache and you can’t afford to go to the dentist without coverage. Now imagine, one…
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Rep. Waxman’s Legacy Includes Significant Improvements in Children’s Health Coverage
Like many of you, I will truly miss Representative Henry Waxman when he retires from Congress at the end of this term. I admire his work ethic, deep concern for others and tireless efforts to stand up for those who need his help the most. Most of all, I admire his ability to get things…
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History Rebuts Claim that Federal Medicaid Matching Rates Are Unstable
By Edwin Park, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities As I explained last week, there’s no evidence to support claims that the federal government will renege on its commitment to finance nearly all of the costs of health reform’s Medicaid expansion. Some critics also assert that Congress frequently changes the formula that determines what share of states’…
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The Federal Financial Commitment to Medicaid Expansion Stands
By Edwin Park, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities Health reform’s Medicaid expansion is a great deal for states. The federal government will finance nearly all of its costs, picking up 100 percent of expansion costs for the first three years (2014-2016) and no less than 90 percent on a permanent basis. In fact, as a recent…
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Where Does EPSDT Stand in Post-ACA Medicaid Expansion 1115 Waivers?
In the last few months, CMS has approved Medicaid expansion 1115 waiver demonstrations in Arkansas, Iowa and Michigan. Pennsylvania has a draft 1115 waiver proposal to expand Medicaid out as well. One important question that has emerged is: How will states continue to provide EPSDT and other benefits to 19 and 20 year olds who…
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CBPP Finds New Plan to Repeal ACA Would Lead to Deep Cuts for Medicaid Beneficiaries, Higher Costs and Fewer Consumer Protections
By Edwin Park, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK), Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), and Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) unveiled a new plan to repeal all of health reform (the Affordable Care Act or ACA) except for certain provisions related to Medicare, cap federal Medicaid funding, and create a new tax credit for people…
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NWLC’s Report Finds Troubling Health Disparities for Low-Income Uninsured Women in States that Have’t Expanded Medicaid Coverage
States that have not yet accepted Medicaid funding to offer coverage to more uninsured adults are doing a huge disservice to women, according to a new report by the National Women’s Law Center. The report found troubling disparities between low-income women with and without health insurance and identified an urgent need to expand coverage in…
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Express Lane Eligibility Has Proven Its Effectiveness – Time to Make it a Permanent Policy Option
Piloting new ways of doing things makes sense. It’s a way to test whether a concept or idea will work the way it’s envisioned, and fine-tune it based on actual experience. To this extent 13 states (AL, CO, GA, IA, LA, MD, ME, NJ, NY, OK, PA, SC, UT) have spent the past five years…