Medicaid

Coronavirus Update for Friday, January 29

The following is the latest COVID-19 information from the federal government as of 2:30 p.m. on Friday, January 29. The Biden Administration The Biden administration has issued an “Executive Order on Strengthening Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act” to make it easier for the uninsured to get coverage during the COVID-19 pandemic. The order: reopens access to the federal Affordable Care Act health insurance marketplace for three months, from February 15 through May 15, and restores some of the Affordable Care Act exchange marketing funds that had been eliminated by the previous administration and calls for the review of all [...]

iqtsupport2021-02-01T06:00:16-05:00February 1, 2021|Affordable Care Act, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Medicaid|

Feds Give States Direction for Addressing Social Determinants of Health

Federal laws, regulations, and programs offer numerous tools to states seeking to address social determinants of health through their Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Now, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has written to state Medicaid directors outlining those tools. In the 51-page letter, CMS notes that Many Medicaid and CHIP beneficiaries may face challenges related to SDOH [social determinants of health], including but not limited to access to nutritious food, affordable and accessible housing, convenient and efficient transportation, safe neighborhoods, strong social connections, quality education, and opportunities for meaningful employment. There is a growing body of evidence [...]

iqtsupport2021-01-15T06:00:58-05:00January 15, 2021|Medicaid|

GAO: CMS Should Pay More Attention to States’ Financing of Medicaid

The federal government does not adequately monitor how states finance their Medicaid programs. It also lacks a sufficiently clear understanding of how they pay providers of Medicaid-covered services. These are among the conclusions in a new study on Medicaid financing and payments by the U.S. Government Accountability Office. According to the GAO report, GAO estimated that states’ reliance on provider taxes and local government funds decreased states’ share of net Medicaid payments (total state and federal payments) and effectively increased the federal share of net Medicaid payments by 5 percentage points in state fiscal year 2018. It also resulted in [...]

iqtsupport2020-12-14T06:00:57-05:00December 14, 2020|Medicaid|

Recession Taking its Toll on States

State Medicaid programs are feeling the effects of the current recession, according to a new report by the Congressional Research Service. According to the brief report, state Medicaid enrollment and costs have risen since the COVID-19 pandemic began and states expect them to continue rising into their 2021 fiscal years. State efforts to reduce spending are limited by provisions in the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, which provided additional federal Medicaid matching funds to the states to assist them with their Medicaid costs during the COVID-19 pandemic but impose maintenance-of-effort requirements in exchange for continued state access to the enhanced [...]

iqtsupport2020-11-17T06:00:33-05:00November 17, 2020|Congress, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Medicaid|

MACPAC Meets

The Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission met for two days last week in Washington, D.C. The following is MACPAC’s own summary of the sessions. The October 2020 MACPAC meeting opened with a panel discussion on restarting Medicaid eligibility redeterminations when the public health emergency ends. It included Jennifer Wagner, director of Medicaid eligibility and enrollment at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities; René Mollow, deputy director for health care benefits and eligibility at the California Department of Health Care Services; and Lee Guice, director of policy and operations at the Department for Medicaid Services, Kentucky Cabinet for [...]

iqtsupport2020-11-05T06:00:25-05:00November 5, 2020|MACPAC, Medicaid, Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission, Medicaid disproportionate share, Medicaid DSH, Medicaid DSH allotments, Medicaid regulations|

Off-Again, On-Again Public Charge Rule is Off Again

A federal rule that would have limited immigration to the U.S. for people who might at some point become dependent on public aid programs has been put on hold again by a federal judge. Implementation of the rule, delayed by several courts and then authorized by the U.S. Supreme Court until the merits of challenges could be heard, was delayed again by a federal court, which said the rule contained “numerous unexplained flaws” that made it “arbitrary and capricious.” Health care advocates feared the rule would discourage some immigrants to whom the rule does not even apply from seeking to [...]

iqtsupport2020-11-03T08:26:59-05:00November 3, 2020|Medicaid|

States Expect Medicaid Enrollment, Spending to Rise in FY 2021

States expect to see their Medicaid enrollment and spending rise in FY 2021, driven by increases in unemployment resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic and maintenance-of-effort requirements in legislation enacted earlier this year. A Kaiser Family Foundation survey of state Medicaid directors found that those officials expect their Medicaid enrollment to rise 8.2 percent in FY 2021 and their Medicaid spending to increase 8.4 percent that same year. Most states expect the 6.2 percentage point increase in federal Medicaid matching funds that was included in the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, passed this March, to expire at the end of 2020. [...]

iqtsupport2020-10-21T06:00:12-04:00October 21, 2020|Medicaid|

Medicaid and CHIP Enrollment Rising in Pandemic

Medicaid enrollment rose 6.2 percent and CHIP enrollment 0.5 percent during the first four months of the COVID-19 public health emergency, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services reports. The enrollment increase can be traced to rising unemployment, with many people losing their employer-sponsored health insurance. The new figures cover five months, from February through June, the latter four of which marked the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The information comes from CMS’s first monthly “Medicaid and CHIP Enrollment Trends Snapshot.” Go here for CMS’s news release explaining its new initiative and here to see the trends snapshot itself.

iqtsupport2020-10-06T06:00:36-04:00October 6, 2020|Medicaid|

Payer Mix to Change, Providers Anticipate

Health care providers expect to serve higher proportions of Medicaid and uninsured patients in the coming year, according to a new survey. The shift will be driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, which as unemployment remains high is leading to fewer patients with commercial insurance and more with Medicaid or no insurance all, according to provider financial executives. Learn more about the reimbursement changes health care providers expect to see over the next twelve months in the Healthcare Dive article “Provider finance execs bracing for unfavorable shift in payer mix, survey finds.”

iqtsupport2020-10-05T06:00:36-04:00October 5, 2020|Medicaid|

Public Charge Rule Takes Effect

The “public charge rule” that the administration introduced in 2019, only to have it challenged in the courts, is now being enforced by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services after a federal court lifted an injunction on its implementation. The rule authorizes USCIS to deny a green card to any immigrant who receives certain public benefits – such as food stamps, public housing vouchers, welfare, or Medicaid – for more than 12 months within any three-year period. The expressed purpose of the rule is to deny green cards to individuals who may become dependent on publicly funded services – a [...]

iqtsupport2020-09-29T06:00:27-04:00September 29, 2020|Medicaid|