Medicaid
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All Eyes on States – Time to Say Goodbye to CHIP Waiting Periods
As states are rushing to get their enrollment and eligibility systems in top form going into 2014, HHS just handed them one more critical decision to make: getting rid of outdated CHIP waiting periods. Say Ahhh! readers know that eliminating CHIP waiting periods— or the period of time that a child must remain uninsured before…
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See How Your State Measures Up on Child Well-being: New Kids Count Data Is Available
By Tara Mancini Last week, the Annie E. Casey released the 24th edition of its Kids Count data book, a go-to source for trends on child well-being. This year’s analysis of national trends compares data from before and after the recession to see how children fare in its aftermath, and the results paint a mixed picture. Since…
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Connecting Kids to Coverage Grants Announced
The third round of Connecting Kids to Coverage Outreach and Enrollment Grants were announced today. A total of $32 million was awarded in 22 states to 41 grantees, which include state and local governments, tribal organizations, community groups, schools, health care providers and other organizations. Grants were targeted in the states with the largest numbers of…
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Translating MAGI to Current Monthly Income Will Be Particularly Important for Kids in Medicaid and CHIP
It’s helpful for all Medicaid and CHIP stakeholders to generally understand that starting in January 2014 there will be new ways to count income and household size to determine Medicaid eligibility based on the new ACA rules. While not everyone needs to dive into these policy weeds, there are a number of reasons it’s important…
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Florida’s Medicaid Managed Care Waiver Receives Final Approval: Some Strong Consumer Protections Included, Oversight Will Be Critical
So it may seem like this already happened but today CMS issued the final documents approving Florida’s request to move almost its entire Medicaid program into managed care. The state needed demonstration waiver approval for some (e.g. children on SSI, in foster care, dual-eligibles, etc) but not all of the populations it is seeking to move into…
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Making Medicaid Work for Child Welfare Populations: Insights from States
By Kamala Allen, Director of Child Health Quality at the Center for Health Care Strategies We know that many children in child welfare have significant health care needs – often exacerbated by trauma, abuse, and neglect – and that most are eligible for coverage through Medicaid. We also know that it can be difficult to…
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Covering Parents is Good for Kids: How Accepting the Medicaid Option Can Help Pennsylvania Kids
(Editor’s Note: This blog is based on testimony presented by the author before the Pennsylvania House of Representatives Human Services Committee today.) By George Hoover, Pennsylvania Partnership for Kids Pennsylvania has a strong history of providing health care coverage to children – a history that was built through bipartisan efforts and a commitment to “Cover…
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Tech Tuesday: Medicaid Assessment or Determination by the Federal Marketplace
People who are eligible for Medicaid or CHIP in their state do not qualify for premium tax credits (or cost-sharing reductions) to help pay for a qualified health plan (QHP) in either a state-based exchange or the federally-facilitated marketplace (FFM). When someone applies for coverage through the FFM in the 34 states that are not…
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Implementing the ACA’s Extension of Medicaid to Former Foster Youth
It should be one of the health reform law’s most straightforward provisions: young adults who were in foster care and enrolled in Medicaid at the age of 18 (or older in states that extend foster care beyond the 18th birthday) get Medicaid coverage until they turn 26. But a wrinkle developed when HHS released proposed…
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Red Flags Raised on Indiana Waiver Proposal
A group of influential national organizations, including Georgetown CCF, submitted a letter today to Secretary Sebelius expressing concerns about some features of the pending Section 1115 Medicaid Demonstration request from the state of Indiana. The letter is available here. The Section 1115 waiver request focuses on using Healthy Indiana as a vehicle for the state’s…
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Foster Care Provision State Partner Webinar
The May 2013 State Partner call/ webinar focused on the foster care provision of the ACA. Download the video here.
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Accepting Medicaid Funding is a Good Deal for States and Would Reduce Financial Burden for Uninsured Residents
By Tara Mancini We all know why the Medicaid expansion is a good deal for states, but it also benefits state residents who stand to become insured. In addition to the obvious benefit of providing access to affordable healthcare, it also has the potential to bring more economic stability to the newly insured. A recently…
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Now About the FMAP for Those Expansion States…
By Martha Heberlein Back in early April, CMS released the final rule on FMAP claiming under the the Affordable Care Act. As covered in a previous blog by my colleague, Jocelyn Guyer, the rule describes the new threshold method that states will use to claim the appropriate matching funds for newly-eligible adults. It also provides more…
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Oregon Study Adds to Growing Evidence of Positive Impact of Medicaid Coverage
The ongoing debate about the positive impact of Medicaid coverage has one more piece of evidence in its corner, as the second part of the Oregon Health Study was released today, finding that Medicaid “substantially improves the well-being of beneficiaries.” Back in 2008, an unprecedented opportunity arose as Oregon held a lottery for open slots in its Medicaid…
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CMS Clarified Enrollment Caps in Medicaid Waivers Will Not be Permitted
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued questions and answers today which, among other things, clarified that Section 1115 waiver requests that include enrollment caps or similar policies would not be approved going forward. CMS notes that such policies do not “further the objectives of the program.” Background note here, Section 1115 Secretarial…
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On Medicaid and ACA, Arkansas Lawmakers Choose Practical Step Forward Over Ideological Objections
All eyes— again! — have been on my home state of Arkansas this week as the General Assembly late yesterday passed the “private option,” aka the “Arkansas Plan,” or using Medicaid funds to buy exchange coverage for 250,000 uninsured Arkansans starting next year. This was no small feat, given the structural and political barriers at…
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Medicaid Payment Provision Seeks to Address Access
By Anne Edwards, M.D., FAAP, Chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on State Government Affairs Pediatricians and other child advocates continue to work with their state Medicaid programs to implement a significant provision in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) to increase access to care in the program. Long sought by the…
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HHS Release Its FMAP Claiming Regulation
By Jocelyn Guyer On April 2nd, 2013, HHS released the “final” version (more on that below) of its FMAP claiming rule. It outlines the process states must use to figure out the matching rate that applies to adults who are covered by the expansion of Medicaid to 138 percent of the federal poverty line. This…
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CMS Issues Guidance on Arkansas Type Premium Assistance Plans
So as Tricia Brooks blogged about yesterday while I was taking the day off, CMS issued some interesting Q and A’s last Friday on how a state might consider taking a premium assistance approach to expanding their Medicaid program. The Q and A’s, to my mind, were a helpful contribution to the ongoing discussions in…
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CMS Q&A Shines Light on “Arkansas Plan”
Just in time for the holiday weekend, CMS issued a Q&A regarding the state option to expand Medicaid by using premium assistance to buy coverage through a qualified health plan in the new insurance marketplaces. Over the past few weeks, “the Arkansas plan” worked itself into a media frenzy and had Medicaid stakeholders concerned over…