Medicaid
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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…
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Medicaid Presumptive Eligibility Coming to a Hospital Near You
Beginning in January 2014, hospitals that provide Medicaid services can begin making presumptive eligibility (PE) decisions giving temporary Medicaid (and/or CHIP) coverage to children, pregnant women, parents and adults covered under the Medicaid expansion. The Affordable Care Act permits this action without regard to whether the state has adopted PE as a policy (as 32…
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Proposed Medicaid and CHIP Performance Indicators Offer Hope of Transparency and Accountability
It’s nice to have reason to take off my navigator hat for a change of pace. And a Request for Information (RFI) on proposed performance indicators for Medicaid and CHIP released earlier this year gave me a great opportunity to focus on another passion of mine – data to assess the effectiveness of our public…
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Covering Parents is Good for Kids: How Expanding Medicaid Helps Low-Income Adults
(Editor’s Note: Welcome to the Center for Children and Families’ “Covering Parents is Good for Kids” blog series. Previous blogs on this topic have pointed out that extending Medicaid coverage to parents will provide a good value to states; maternal, infant and early childhood home visiting programs help prevent child maltreatment; covering parents can help depressed mothers get treatment and improve…
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New Resource Looks at Premium Assistance Options in Medicaid/CHIP
Yesterday my new report for the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured was released called Premium Assistance in Medicaid and CHIP: An Overview of Current Options and Implications of the Affordable Care Act. The paper examines how statutory changes in the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act and the Affordable Care Act have changed…
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New Study Finds Failure to Expand Medicaid Could be Costly for Employers
A new study provides states with yet another reason to accept federal funding to extend Medicaid coverage to more uninsured people. A study by Jackson Hewitt Tax Service found that states that fail to accept the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid option will leave employers exposed to higher shared responsibility payments than employers in states that…
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Premium Assistance in Medicaid and CHIP: An Overview of Current Options and Implications of the Affordable Care Act
Premium assistance is the use of public funds through Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to purchase private coverage. States have pursued premium assistance with varied objectives, including covering parents not otherwise eligible for public coverage and promoting the use of private coverage. Implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) coverage expansions is likely to spark renewed…
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Florida Medicaid Expansion – Not Dead Yet
Yesterday, the Florida Senate Select Committee on PPACA voted against a Florida Medicaid expansion on a straight party line vote – a surprise to some since a few Republicans on the committee, including Chairman Negron, had indicated that they were interested in moving forward. Many media sources are reporting that the Medicaid expansion is all…