Medicaid access to care

CMS Proposes Easing Medicaid Access Protections

States would have to do less to ensure access to Medicaid-covered services for their Medicaid population under a new regulation proposed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. In 2015, CMS required states to track their Medicaid fee-for-service payments and submit them to the federal government as part of a process to ensure that Medicaid payments were sufficient to ensure access to care for eligible individuals. Now, CMS proposes rescinding this requirement, writing in a news release that This proposed rule is designed to help streamline federal oversight of access to care requirements that protect Medicaid beneficiaries. CMS anticipates [...]

iqtsupport2019-07-16T10:33:57-04:00July 16, 2019|Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Medicaid, Medicaid regulations|

Docs Still Less Likely to Treat Medicaid Patients

Medicaid patients continue to be last in line when it comes to finding doctors willing to serve them. At least that’s the conclusion drawn in a new analysis prepared by the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission. According to a presentation delivered at a MACPAC meeting last week: Doctors are less likely to accept new Medicaid patients (70.8 percent) than they are patients insured by Medicare (85.3 percent) or private insurers (90 percent), with a much greater differential in acceptance rates among specialists and psychiatrists. Pediatricians, general surgeons, and ob/gyns have a higher acceptance rate of Medicaid patients than [...]

iqtsupport2019-01-29T13:00:57-05:00January 29, 2019|MACPAC, Medicaid, Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission|

Hospitals, Others Oppose Easing Medicaid Access Requirements

Hospital groups and other health care interest organizations have expressed strong opposition to a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services proposal to ease requirements that states ensure adequate access to care for their Medicaid population. Under current federal Medicaid law, states must periodically review their Medicaid provider networks to ensure that Medicaid recipients have adequate access to care. Under a March CMS proposal, that requirement would exempt states from performing such reviews if at least 85 percent of their Medicaid population is enrolled in a managed care plan and similarly exempt them from reviewing the impact on their provider networks [...]

iqtsupport2018-06-01T06:00:07-04:00June 1, 2018|Medicaid, Medicaid managed care, Medicaid regulations|

MACPAC Meets

The Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission, a non-partisan legislative branch agency that advises Congress, the administration, and the states on Medicaid and CHIP issues, met publicly in Washington, D.C. last week. The following is MACPAC’s own summary of its two days of meetings. The April 2018 meeting began with session on social determinants of health. Panelists Jocelyn Guyer of Manatt Health Solutions, Arlene Ash of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and Kevin Moore of UnitedHealthcare Community & State discussed state approaches to financing social interventions through Medicaid. In its second morning session, the Commission reviewed a draft [...]

iqtsupport2018-04-23T06:00:05-04:00April 23, 2018|MACPAC, Medicaid, Medicaid long-term services and supports, Medicaid managed care, Medicaid regulations|

Medicaid Enrollees: Access and Quality Are Good

Medicaid beneficiaries are generally satisfied with their access to care and the quality of care they receive. Or so reports a new study based on results of the federal Medicaid Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) survey for December of 2014 to July of 2015. According to the survey, nearly half of Medicaid patients rated their overall care 7.9 or greater on a scale of 10; 84 percent reported that they had been able to receive all of the care they needed over the past six months; and most were generally satisfied with the coverage. Relatively few reported [...]

iqtsupport2017-07-12T13:55:49-04:00July 12, 2017|Medicaid|