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 Commission wrapped up its work on the June 2019 Report to Congress on Medicaid and CHIP at the April meeting, with sessions reviewing four of the report’s five draft chapters on Thursday morning, and votes on potential recommendations later in the afternoon. First on Thursday’s agenda was a draft June chapter on Medicaid prescription drug policy, which contained draft recommendations to provide states with a grace period to determine Medicaid drug coverage and [...]

iqtsupport2019-04-16T06:00:59-04:00April 16, 2019|MACPAC, Medicaid, Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission, Medicaid disproportionate share, Medicaid DSH, Medicaid regulations|

Medicaid Expansion Helping FQHCs

Federally qualified health centers have benefited from Medicaid expansion, a new survey has found. According to a new Commonwealth Fund report, a survey comparing FQHCs in states that expanded their Medicaid programs to FQHCs in states that did not expand their Medicaid programs found that FQHCs in expansion states are: more financially stable more likely to provide behavioral health services, including medication-assisted treatment for opioid addiction, counseling, and coordination of care with social service providers more likely to engage in value-based care Because of Medicaid expansion, FQHCs now are paid for services they previously provided at no charge to low-income, [...]

iqtsupport2019-04-10T06:00:05-04:00April 10, 2019|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|

HHS Talking to States About Medicaid Block Grants

In the absence of legislation to turn Medicaid into a block grant program, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is talking to some states about granting waivers that permit them – voluntarily – to turn their individual Medicaid programs into block grants. HHS Secretary Alex Azar acknowledged this last week during a hearing of the Senate Finance Committee. He did not disclose which states, or how many, with which HHS has had such discussions and he also noted that his staff is talking to state officials about waivers to permit them to adopt Medicaid per capita spending limits. [...]

iqtsupport2019-03-20T06:00:51-04:00March 20, 2019|Medicaid|

“Rejected” Medicaid Reforms May Resurface

Partial Medicaid expansion, desired by some Republican governors but rejected by the Trump administration last year, may not be so rejected after all. At least not according to Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which oversees the federal Medicaid program. In a recent interview, Verma said the administration is reconsidering its rejection of partial Medicaid expansion, an idea she supports and that What I have said to states and to governors [is] “Tell me what you want to do, and it’s my job to help you get to where you want to go.” To emphasize [...]

iqtsupport2019-03-18T06:00:23-04:00March 18, 2019|health care reform, Medicaid|

Sneak Preview of Medicaid Spending Limits?

The imposition of spending limits for individual Medicaid recipients has been discussed in Washington policy circles for years and was offered in the White House’s recent FY 2020 budget proposal. While deliberations on such a proposal have never advanced in a meaningful way, the state of Utah is doing more than talking about such an approach: it has petitioned the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services for a Medicaid waiver that would enable it to introduce such a system in its state Medicaid program. Under the state’s proposed Medicaid waiver, Utah asks the federal government to limit its own Medicaid [...]

iqtsupport2019-03-14T13:00:42-04:00March 14, 2019|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. MACPAC looked ahead to its June 2019 report to Congress on the initial day of the March 2019 Commission meeting. In the morning, sessions focused on potential recommendations to create a grace period for states to determine coverage policies for outpatient prescription drugs and removing or raising the rebate cap; a uniform definition of therapeutic foster care; and treatment of third-party payment when determining hospitals’ Medicaid shortfall for disproportionate share hospital payments. In the [...]

iqtsupport2019-03-13T06:00:16-04:00March 13, 2019|MACPAC, Medicaid, Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission|

Rural Nursing Homes Struggle With Challenges

Across rural parts of the country skilled nursing facilities are struggling, and growing numbers are faltering in the face of many problems. Among the challenges they face are: difficulty passing health and safety standards evolving health care policies that encourage people to remain in their homes instead of choosing to enter nursing homes growing proportions of patients covered by Medicaid the failure of Medicaid payments in many states to cover the cost of nursing home care These challenges are especially acute in rural areas. Today, many regions have enough skilled nursing beds, at least on paper, but they are not [...]

iqtsupport2019-03-06T06:00:27-05:00March 6, 2019|Medicaid, post-acute care|

Nursing Home Study: More Medicaid Patients=Worse Care

Nursing homes that serve larger proportions of Medicaid patients have lower quality ratings, according to a new study from the American Health Care Association, a long-term-care provider trade group. The study also found that: For-profit nursing homes care for more Medicaid patients than non-profits. Rural nursing homes care for more Medicaid patients than urban facilities. Large facilities care for a higher proportion of Medicaid patients than smaller facilities. Learn more about the study and the theories behind some of these findings in the McKnight’s Long-Term Care News article “AHCA study: Facilities with higher Medicaid populations have poorer quality outcomes.” [...]

iqtsupport2019-02-28T13:00:01-05:00February 28, 2019|Medicaid, post-acute care|

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|