Medicaid work requirements

Federal Health Policy Update for April 24

The following is the latest health policy news from the federal government for April 18-24. Some of the language used below is taken directly from government documents. Congress The House and Senate are in recess until April 28. Upon their return to Washington D.C., committees will begin marking up reconciliation legislation for submission to their respective chambers’ budget committees by May 9. The Energy and Commerce Committee is expected to mark up its bill, with $880 billion in cuts, the week of May 5. The committee is expected to seek nearly $550 billion in cuts to Medicaid spending, with the [...]

joe2025-04-24T14:45:26-04:00April 24, 2025|340b, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Congress, hospitals, Medicaid, Medicaid managed care, Medicare, Medicare reimbursement policy|

Federal Health Policy Update for April 17

The following is the latest health policy news from the federal government for April 11-17. Some of the language used below is taken directly from government documents. The White House President Trump signed an executive order titled “Lowering Drug Prices by Once Again Putting Americans First” that directs the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to take steps to lower prescription drug costs for patients. The order addresses several prescription drug-related policies, including: the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program seeking better Medicare prices for drugs not subject to the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program accelerating FDA drug [...]

joe2025-04-17T17:14:31-04:00April 17, 2025|340b, Accountable Care Organization, ACO, Alternative payment models, Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, CMMI, Congress, hospitals, MACPAC, Medicaid, Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission, Medicare, Medicare reimbursement policy|

Hospitals Chart 2025 Public Policy Objectives

The hospital industry has an ambitious public policy agenda for 2025 – most of it involving defending the status quo against proposed changes. Hospitals’ advocacy in 2025 will focus on: Fighting off Medicaid cuts, work requirements, reductions in the federal Medicaid matching rate, eliminating scheduled cuts in Medicaid disproportionate share (Medicaid DSH) allotments to the states, and protecting state-directed Medicaid payments and the ability of states to raise Medicaid funding through provider taxes. Preventing a transition to site-neutral payments for Medicare-covered outpatient services. Ensuring the continuation of current section 340B prescription drug discount program practices. Preserving and even extending current [...]

joe2025-02-12T11:11:23-05:00February 13, 2025|340b, hospitals, Medicaid, Medicaid disproportionate share, Medicaid DSH, Medicaid DSH allotments, Medicaid managed care, Medicaid regulations, Medicare, Medicare reimbursement policy, Telehealth|

The Potential Impact of Medicaid Work Requirements

Many policymakers in Washington, D.C. are again talking about imposing work requirements on the Medicaid population. Limited work requirements were imposed during the late 2010s in some states, although many were overturned by the courts. But as policymakers consider such requirements again, a natural question is what kind of difference work requirements might make. According to recent data from the Kaiser Family Foundation, not as great a difference as many might suspect. According to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation analysis, In 2023, most Medicaid adults under age 65 were working (Figure 1). Among adults under age 65 with Medicaid who [...]

joe2025-02-06T16:18:44-05:00February 10, 2025|Congress, Medicaid|

House Committee Mulls Possible Health Care Cuts

Republican members of the House Budget Committee have circulated a list of possible policy changes that would reduce federal spending between $5.3 trillion and $5.7 trillion over a period of ten years. Up to $3.4 trillion of those possible cuts could include reductions in federal health care spending. The health care cuts the document lists (all figures are ten-year reductions) are: Medicare introducing Medicare site-neutral outpatient payments - $146 billion reducing Medicare disproportionate share (Medicare DSH) uncompensated care payments - $229 billion reducing Medicare bad debt reimbursement - $42 billion extending the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013 budget sequestration that [...]

joe2025-01-14T15:44:54-05:00January 15, 2025|Affordable Care Act, Congress, deficit reduction, Federal Update, hospitals, Medicaid, Medicare, Medicare bad debt reimbursement, Medicare cuts, Medicare disproportionate share, Medicare DSH, Medicare reimbursement policy, Pennsylvania Update|

Medicaid Changes on the Agenda?

With a new administration 60 days from taking office and the same party to be controlling the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives, Medicaid changes are a common topic of conversation in Washington policy circles these days. One of the objectives of those conversations: reducing federal spending on Medicaid, which in federal fiscal year 2023 amounted to $860 billion. Among the means of reducing those expenditures that can be expected to be the subject of policy deliberations in the coming months are: Instituting Medicaid work requirements. Ending the supplemental federal Medicaid funding states receive for Medicaid enrollees covered under [...]

joe2024-11-19T16:26:24-05:00November 21, 2024|Affordable Care Act, Medicaid|

Medicaid Changes Coming?

In office only three months, it appears the new administration has its sights set on expanding Medicaid. According to the Washington Post, Medicaid expansion could be in the works in several areas, including: elimination of work requirements Medicaid expansion in more states extended coverage for women who give birth increased funding for home-based care easier enrollment processes increased coverage for recent immigrants and prisoners Learn more about possible Medicaid changes to come in the Washington Post article “Trump tried to shrink Medicaid. Here's how Biden will try to expand it."

iqtsupport2021-04-20T06:00:09-04:00April 20, 2021|Medicaid|

Medicaid Work Requirements on the Way Out?

Medicaid work requirements appear to be going away in the wake of the Supreme Court agreeing to a Biden administration request to postpone arguments in a case brought by the Trump administration seeking to reverse previous court rulings blocking implementation of such requirements. To date, 12 states have received federal approval to implement Medicaid work requirements although only one such effort, in Arkansas, ever got off the ground. All of the efforts eventually stalled in the face of legal challenges and administrative obstacles. Upon taking office, the Biden administration informed the 12 states that it was considering withdrawing their approvals [...]

iqtsupport2021-03-16T13:00:38-04:00March 16, 2021|Medicaid, Medicaid regulations|

Administration Continues Dismantling Medicaid Work Requirements

A week after announcing that it was withdrawing permission for states to implement approved Medicaid work requirements and would no longer entertain applications to introduce such programs, the Biden administration has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to cancel arguments next month on the legality of such requirements. As reported in SCOTUSblog, That argument is no longer necessary, Biden’s acting solicitor general, Elizabeth Prelogar, told the justices in a seven-page motion on Monday. The Biden administration has “preliminarily determined” that work requirements do not serve Medicaid’s goals, Prelogar wrote. Arkansas, one of the two states involved in the case, maintains that [...]

iqtsupport2021-02-24T06:00:14-05:00February 24, 2021|Medicaid|

Verma Addresses Medicaid Issues

Earlier this week, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services administrator Seema Verma spoke at a conference of the National Association of Medicaid Directors. In addition to discussing a proposed regulation posted earlier in the day that would introduce changes in the regulation of state financing of their Medicaid programs, Verma also addressed: Medicaid demonstration programs Medicaid work requirements a shift toward value-based payments better coordination of care for the dually eligible (individuals serve by both Medicaid and Medicare) enrollment issues improvements in the efficiency of the federal Medicaid bureaucracy Read Verma’s complete remarks here.

iqtsupport2019-11-15T06:00:58-05:00November 15, 2019|Medicaid, Medicaid disproportionate share, Medicaid DSH, Medicaid DSH allotments, Medicaid upper-payment limit|