Medicaid
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Medicaid Expansion Tipping Point: The three reasons why reluctant states like Pennsylvania are warming up to Medicaid
It’s getting harder and harder for Governors to say no to the great deal being offered to them through the Medicaid expansion option. Just last week Pennsylvania reached agreement with the federal government on a Medicaid expansion waiver and news stories show possible movement in Wyoming, Utah and Tennessee. This new momentum forward shows that…
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Pennsylvania Becomes 28th State to Expand Medicaid, Governor Compromises on Many of His Requests….
As readers of Say Ahhh! know, we have been closely watching the path of Governor Corbett’s proposal for Pennsylvania Medicaid expansion known as “Healthy PA.” Today, the governor received official approval for his Medicaid Section 1115 Research and Demonstration proposal. Pennsylvania becomes the 28th state (including DC) to expand Medicaid. I have blogged previously about…
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CMS Offers Flexible Strategies for Medicaid and CHIP Renewals
Say Ahhh! readers know that I’m bullish on using technology to move Medicaid and CHIP toward data-driven, real time eligibility and enrollment. But having worked through the implementation of a new system as a CHIP director, I know how challenging this task can be. On top of that, Medicaid and CHIP are undergoing a full…
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Healthy Lives Require Early Investments in Both Children and Parents
By Sean Miskell “The earliest years of our lives set us on paths leading toward – or away from – good health.” — RWJF Commission to Build a Healthier America Evidence increasingly shows that the experiences children have when they are young have a lasting impact on their lifelong health and well-being. A new issue…
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How Does Coverage Gap Impact Parents and Kids in States Turning Down Medicaid Expansion Funds?
We know that thanks to Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, America’s children are – overall – benefiting from historically high rates of health coverage (over 90% of U.S. children are now covered) even through some states still lag behind. However, low-income parents of dependent children around the country are not so fortunate if…
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Open 24/7, Medicaid and CHIP Enrollment Gains Top 7.2 Million
The June Medicaid and CHIP Enrollment Report, released last week by CMS, shows that 7.2 million more people are now covered by Medicaid and CHIP than before the beginning of open enrollment last October. It’s not surprising that states expanding Medicaid have seen an 18.5 percent increase in Medicaid and CHIP enrollment, while those opting…
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Urban Institute/RWJF Report: Reluctant States not Expanding Medicaid Hurt State Budgets, Hospitals and Uninsured
A new report from the Urban Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation lays out in detail the consequences to the twenty-four states so far not expanding Medicaid. Earlier analyses have detailed some of the financial hit states take by refusing the new federal Medicaid funding, but this new report takes a much more comprehensive…
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Congress and States Work to Extend ACA’s Medicaid Primary Care Bump
By Sophia Duong A hot topic recently has been the extension of the Medicaid payment rate increases for primary care services. The ACA required states to reimburse primary care physicians who treat Medicaid beneficiaries at the higher Medicare rate for 2013 and 2014. The rate bump has garnered large support from physicians and hospitals, and…
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Medicaid’s Role in Improving Early Childhood Outcomes
Today, more than 27 million children are covered through Medicaid and CHIP. For the youngest children, Medicaid plays a critical role: More than 45 percent of children under age six are publicly insured. Nearly one in five Medicaid beneficiaries in the U.S. nationwide is a child under age six. Medicaid’s requirement that children receive strong,…
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No Welcome Mat for Kids in Wisconsin
By Jon Peacock, Wisconsin Council on Children and Families Advocates Seek DHS Help in Understanding What’s Causing a BadgerCare Decline The BadgerCare changes that Wisconsin put into effect this year have had a surprising and worrisome effect. Over the last 9 months, the total number of children in BadgerCare and Transitional Medicaid has been falling, at a…
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Child Emergency Room Visits as a Window into the Larger Landscape of Child’s Health Coverage
By Naomi Stark, Georgetown CCF Research Assistant The CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) recently published a report on Emergency Room (ER) use among children in the U.S. using data gathered from the 2012 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). Authors explored the relationship of child coverage type (Private, Medicaid and Uninsured) to the frequency…
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Don’t Forget this Chart When Reading About Ambitious State Medicaid Expansion and Reform Plans
As states move to expand Medicaid across the country, there is plenty of discussion about new and innovative ways to run state Medicaid programs. There is merit (and perhaps cost savings) in trying out new ways to coordinate and deliver care in our health system. In fact, more federal funding was announced last week to…
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Kids Count Data Book Documents Important Gains in Health Coverage for Kids & Uncovers Health Disparities for Some
The Annie E. Casey Foundation recently published the 25th edition of their KIDS COUNT Data Book, which provides comprehensive information on the status of children’s well-being in the United States. In addition to children’s health status, the Data Book reports on child wellness in three other domains including economic well-being, education, and family and community.…
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Michigan: Hospitals Seeing Quick Decline in Charity Care Patients after Medicaid Expansion
Two quotes from this article by Judy Packer-Tursman (H/T @jcrosscall) draw attention to the decline in uncompensated care patients less than four months after GOP Governor Rick Snyder’s Michigan-style plan to use federal Medicaid expansion dollars began enrolling people. These are quote from two of the biggest health systems in Michigan: “We’ve seen large numbers of…
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Many Foster Youth Rely on Medicaid to Meet Behavioral Health Care Needs
If you have seen Short Term 12, an indie film darling making the rounds on Netflix, then you know the importance of behavioral healthcare for youth in foster care and those who have just aged out of foster care. The film follows Grace (Brie Larson) working at a group home for teenagers who are in…
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Kaiser Releases Report on Impact of CHIP and Medicaid on Kids
By Keanan Lane September 2015 continues to draw closer, and with it, the question over whether funding for CHIP will be extended. As the discussion develops into a wider and more hotly contested debate, it will be important to bring out the evidence on how CHIP has proven effective in providing insurance access to children,…
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Indiana Medicaid Expansion Waiver Not Yet Open for Public Comment
The federal government did not certify Indiana’s Section 1115 Medicaid Research and Demonstration waiver to expand its Healthy Indiana program as complete and open for public comment because the state did not conduct the required tribal consultation with the Potowatomi Indians. The waiver request can be seen here. We along with our partners at the…
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Utah: Medicaid Expansion Report Presented to Legislative Health Reform Task Force
Presented to the Health Reform Task Force of the Utah legislature today the report, by Dr. Norman J. Waitzman of the University of Utah Department of Economics, gives extensive information about the people who would benefit should Utah decide to accept federal money to extend health coverage to low-income people in the state. Surprisingly, the Waitzman…
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Two Americas: Hospitals, Charity Care and Medicaid Expansion
As we move halfway through 2014, rapid changes in how health care is being delivered to our lowest income families are taking place across the country. As I noted last week multiple surveys are showing a significant drop in the rate of uninsured adults nationwide, with most of the reduction coming in states that have…
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Four New Reports Support BadgerCare Expansion
By Jon Peacock, Wisconsin Council on Children and Families The case for expanding BadgerCare coverage to all adults up to 138% of the federal poverty level (FPL) has been strengthened greatly by four new documents that were issued over the last few weeks. Although these four reports cover a wide variety of topics, and two don’t…