Bulletin Board
Bulletin Board
States Get More Time to Improve Approach to Serving the Elderly, Disabled
The federal government is giving state three additional years to improve their Medicaid-funded efforts to help keep the elderly and the disabled in the community. The requirement, established in 2014 for implementation by 2019, requires states to do more to enable the elderly to remain in their homes rather than go to nursing homes and to help the disabled live and work in the community or at least have greater control of their own lives while residing in group home settings. Among the approaches states have been developing in response [...]
Hospital Uncompensated Care Down
As was surely expected, reforms introduced through implementation of the Affordable Care Act have driven down uncompensated care costs for many hospitals. How much? A new study published by the Commonwealth Fund offers the following findings: uncompensated care declines in expansion states are substantial relative to profit margins; for every dollar of uncompensated care costs hospitals in expansion states had in 2013, the Affordable Care Act erased 41 cents by 2015; and Medicaid expansion reduced uncompensated care burdens for safety-net hospitals that are not made whole by Medicaid disproportionate share [...]
Tiered Networks = Lower Costs
Health plans that employ tiered provider networks reduce health care spending, a study has found. The report, published in the journal Health Affairs, found that tiered provider networks reduced spending on inpatient, outpatient, and outpatient radiology among non-elderly members of commercial health plans by five percent. Learn more about this conclusion and how researchers reached it in the Health Affairs article “Enrollment In A Health Plan With A Tiered Provider Network Decreased Medical Spending By 5 Percent,” which can be found here.
More Insured Didn’t Affect Access
When the Affordable Care Act was debated and then passed, some observers questioned whether the health care system had enough providers to care for the millions of additional people who would be gaining coverage through the reform law. In particular, some worried that those who already had insurance would find their access to care reduced because of the new, increased demand for care among the newly insured. Those fears appear to have been groundless. In a new study published in the journal Health Affairs, researchers concluded that …we found no [...]
MACPAC Meets
Last week the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission met in Washington, D.C. The agency performs policy and data analysis and offers recommendations to Congress, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the states. During two days of meetings, MACPAC commissioners received the following presentations: Federal CHIP Funding Update: When Will States Exhaust Their Allotments? Review of June Report Chapter: Program Integrity in Medicaid Managed Care Review of June Report Chapter: Medicaid and the Opioid Epidemic Medicare Savings Program: Eligible But Not Enrolled Medicaid Reform: Implications of Proposed [...]