Affordable Care Act

Uninsured ED and Inpatient Visits Down Since ACA

Uninsured hospital admissions and emergency department visits are down since passage of the Affordable Care Act. And Medicaid-covered admissions and ER visits are up, according to a new analysis. The report, published on the JAMA Network Open, found that ER visits by uninsured patients fell from 16 percent to eight percent between 2006 and 2016, with most of this decline after 2014, while uninsured discharges fell from six percent to four percent. The rate of uninsured ER visits declined, moreover, at a time when overall ER visits continued to rise. While the Affordable Care Act is likely the cause of [...]

iqtsupport2019-05-01T06:00:26-04:00May 1, 2019|Affordable Care Act, hospitals, Medicaid|

ACA Repeal Would Drive Up Uninsured, Uncompensated Care

At the same time that the Trump administration announced that it has asked a federal court to repeal the entire Affordable Care Act, the Urban Institute has published a report detailing the potential impact of the health care reform law’s repeal. According to the Urban Institute report, repealing the entire Affordable Care Act would add almost 20 million Americans to the ranks of the uninsured. Medicaid and CHIP enrollment would fall by 15.4 million people and millions of others would lose the tax credits they used to purchase insurance. Some would purchase insurance with limited benefits and individual plan premiums [...]

iqtsupport2019-03-29T06:00:00-04:00March 29, 2019|Affordable Care Act, health care reform, hospitals, Medicaid|

Feds Seek Input on Selling Health Insurance Across State Lines

Working to achieve an objective of reducing the cost of health insurance by encouraging the sale of health insurance policies across state lines, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has published a request for information seeking input from stakeholders and the public on how this might best be done. According to a CMS news release, the agency seeks … feedback on how states can take advantage of Section 1333 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which provides for the establishment of a regulatory framework that allows two or more states to enter into a Health Care Choice [...]

iqtsupport2019-03-11T06:00:41-04:00March 11, 2019|Affordable Care Act, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services|

States Taking Different Paths to Pay for Medicaid Expansion

With the federal share of Medicaid expansion falling to 90 percent next year, states that expanded their Medicaid programs under the Affordable Care Act are now exploring new ways to raise the money to pay for the 10 percent for which they will soon by responsible. Some are implementing hospital or insurer taxes while others are increasing existing taxes on hospitals and health insurers. New Hampshire is directing part of the proceeds from a liquor tax for this purpose and other states have introduced cigarette taxes. Some are charging premiums to Medicaid beneficiaries and introducing Medicaid work requirements so they [...]

iqtsupport2019-02-25T06:00:37-05:00February 25, 2019|Affordable Care Act, Medicaid|

Medicaid Expansion: A Good Financial Decision for States?

Medicaid expansion is a good financial deal for states, according to a new analysis by The Commonwealth Fund. At the heart of this conclusion are three primary considerations: The federal government pays 90 percent of the total cost of Medicaid expansion. States save money by expanding their Medicaid programs – even after paying their 10 percent share, because they shift the cost of care for some of their residents, currently paid entirely by the state, to Medicaid, for which the federal government pays 90 percent of the cost. Any remaining additional state costs represent only a very small portion of [...]

iqtsupport2019-02-20T06:00:57-05:00February 20, 2019|Affordable Care Act, Medicaid|

No Medicaid Expansion=Greater Peril for Rural Hospitals

Rural hospitals located in states that did not expand their Medicaid programs, as authorized by the Affordable Care Act, are at much greater risk of closing than hospitals in states that did expand their Medicaid programs. According to a Stateline report, most of the 100 rural hospitals that have closed since 2010 and most of the more than 600 rural hospitals that are considered to be in danger of closing now are located in states like Texas, Mississippi, and 12 others that have not expanded their Medicaid programs. Small rural hospitals that have not closed serve large proportions of uninsured [...]

iqtsupport2019-01-28T06:00:27-05:00January 28, 2019|Affordable Care Act, hospitals, Medicaid|

CMS Introduces New Waivers

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has introduced four new “state relief and empowerment waivers” that are widely viewed as new vehicles for states to circumvent Affordable Care Act requirements to implement their own new approaches to health care. Through “account-based subsidies” waivers, states may direct public subsidies into defined-contribution, consumer-directed accounts that individuals use to pay for health insurance premiums or other health care expenses. “State-specific premium assistance” waivers enable states to create their own subsidy programs. “Adjusted plan options” authorizes states to provide financial assistance for different types of health insurance plans, including short-term and other health [...]

iqtsupport2018-12-03T06:00:13-05:00December 3, 2018|Affordable Care Act, health care reform|

Medicaid Expansion Didn’t Hurt Access After All

The expansion of Medicaid in nearly two-thirds of the states has not affected access to care for Medicare participants in those states. According to a new analysis by the National Bureau of Economic Research, Medicare patients had no more trouble getting timely doctors’ appointments, suffered no increase in costs, and experienced no increase in waiting times after their state expanded its Medicaid program under the Affordable Care Act. Learn more about these findings in this Healthcare Dive report or go here for access to the National Bureau of Economic Research report “The Impact of Insurance Expansions on the Already Insured: [...]

iqtsupport2018-10-24T06:00:27-04:00October 24, 2018|Affordable Care Act, Medicaid|

Medicaid Expansion Helping Diabetics

The Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion has led to a 40 percent increase in the number of prescriptions for diabetes medicine filled in the 30 states that expanded their Medicaid programs. Meanwhile, there was no change in the number of diabetes-related prescriptions filled in states that did not expand their Medicaid programs. This is considered important because it suggests that many low-income people who either could not afford their diabetes medicine or whose illness was undiagnosed are now being treated for the disease – a significant development because every diabetic who is treated for the condition represents a cost savings [...]

iqtsupport2018-08-08T06:00:12-04:00August 8, 2018|Affordable Care Act, Medicaid|

Pay Raise Didn’t Lead More Docs to Participate in Medicaid

The temporary rate increase that the Affordable Care Act provided as means of encouraging more doctors to serve Medicaid patients did not work, according to two new studies published in the journal Health Affairs. According to the studies, the increase in the number of physicians who decided to begin serving Medicaid patients as a result of the fee increase was negligible. Among the reasons the studies’ authors offer for the lack of growth in the participation of doctors are the limited nature of the pay raise and the documentation required to receive it. Despite this, the authors note, access to [...]

iqtsupport2018-07-23T06:00:18-04:00July 23, 2018|Affordable Care Act, Medicaid|