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Kaiser Health News
The rate of Hispanic children without health insurance fell to a historic low in 2014, the first year that key parts of Obamacare took effect, but they still represent a disproportionate share of the nation’s uninsured youth, according to a new study. About 300,000 Hispanic children gained insurance in 2014 from 2013, dropping the number of uninsured to 1.7 million, researchers said. Their uninsured rate fell to 9.7 percent, almost 2 percentage points below the year before. The rate for all U.S. children fell to 6.0 percent from 7.1 percent.
The report released Friday was co-authored by the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute's Center for Children and Families and the National Council of La Raza, a civil rights and advocacy group for Hispanic-Americans.
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American College of Nurse-Midwives
During this webinar, Jesse S. Bushman, MA, MALA, the director of advocacy and government affairs for the American College of Nurse-Midwives will describe how Medicaid health plans can save money on what is the most common hospital service they cover, birth and maternity care. Medicaid programs cover nearly half of all births in the country. ACNM estimates that total costs to the Medicaid programs for maternity care and the first three months of life for infants totals more than $19 billion each year, making it a significant cost driver for the program.
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Times-News
A new report on Idaho's managed-care contract for mental health services says the state is spending less even though more people are getting services. Most of the complaints service providers have were necessary changes to the system the Department of Health and Welfare wanted to make, state auditors told the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee Monday afternoon. The changes would have happened no matter which provider the state selected.
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Winston-Salem Journal
North Carolina would have the opportunity to expand its Medicaid program with 100 percent federal financing for the first three years, according to a proposal unveiled Thursday by the White House. However, analysts say the chances are slim for getting approval from a Republican-controlled Congress and a Republican-controlled N.C. General Assembly in an election year.
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Complex Clinical Reviews. Dependent Audits. And More.
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The Washington Post
President Barack Obama gave a pat on the back to Louisiana's new Democratic governor, John Bel Edwards, for his move to accept federal funds for expanded Medicaid coverage, a key part of the president's healthcare reform efforts. And the White House said it would seek to continue that funding to win over governors still opposed to expansion.
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The Courier-Journal
These hardscrabble Appalachian hills so rife with need and illness have been a national testing ground for Obamacare over the past two years, but they may soon test something more fundamental — the age-old struggle to balance personal responsibility with the obligation to care for the poor. The Affordable Care Act gave thousands of residents in Eastern Kentucky, one of the nation's most vulnerable communities, unprecedented new access to healthcare — mostly through expansion of taxpayer-funded Medicaid, helping make Kentucky a national model.
But it also raised fears about yet another burden on a fragile state budget and skepticism among conservatives who saw it as out of step with their political ideology. Newly elected Republican Gov. Matt Bevin alluded to both concerns when he announced plans to remake Kentucky's Medicaid expansion to look more like nearby Indiana's program, a more limited version that calls for patients to share more costs so they have a bigger stake in their care.
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The Associated Press via Chicago Tribune
After three failed attempts to expand Medicaid under the federal healthcare law, Nebraska lawmakers will unveil a new proposal this week that would offer private coverage to thousands of low-income residents. The newest bill is modeled after the so-called private option adopted by Arkansas, which received a federal waiver to spend Medicaid dollars on private insurance.
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Santa Fe New Mexican
New Mexico lawmakers will enter the 30-day legislative session Tuesday without complete information on Medicaid — one of the largest parts of the state budget. A joint state and federal program that provides health coverage for low-income Americans, Medicaid constitutes a third of the new money state officials are requesting during this year's session. Yet for years, lawmakers have been unable to get up-to-date information about the population served by the program, what types of healthcare services they receive and the effectiveness of those services.
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With an emphasis on innovative initiatives and data-driven solutions, DentaQuest is partnering with health plans to fundamentally change the way oral health is delivered in America. Integrating preventive oral health programs not only offers members a wider portfolio of choice - it is also a proven driver of cost control.
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Georgia Health News
A bipartisan panel of state lawmakers voiced agreement Thursday on at least a couple of healthcare issues. Support for a higher cigarette tax and for the emerging trend of ambulance crews treating people in their homes rather than in ERs were two areas of general unanimity on the panel at an event sponsored by the group Georgians for a Healthy Future. But as expected, there was sharp division among the four legislators on the panel when it came to the issue of expanding the state's Medicaid program.
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The Columbus Dispatch
Tens of thousands of low-income Ohioans could lose Medicaid coverage under a state plan to charge premiums and impose penalties on those who miss the payments, advocates for the poor warn. State officials plan to ask federal regulators later this year to allow premiums to be charged to nondisabled, working-age adults on Medicaid who have incomes of less than 138 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $16,200 a year. The requirement would affect more than 1 million of the 3 million Ohioans covered by the tax-funded health insurance.
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The New England Journal of Medicine (Subscription required)
Long-term care is not covered by Medicare or private insurance. Medicaid pays for long-term care for the poor and those who qualify after paying out of pocket for care. This article discusses the financing challenges in the context of aging baby boomers and fiscal constraints.
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The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation
There have been long-standing questions about the effect the Medicaid expansion would have on spending and enrollment. Preliminary data from the Medicaid Budget and Expenditure System (MBES) released by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) may provide some early insights into these questions. CMS released preliminary spending and enrollment data from the MBES that covers the period from January 2014 through December 2014. This period is of particular interest because these are the first quarters that the Medicaid expansion was in effect.
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MHPA
Thanks again to all who attended and who participated in this great recap of MHPA's annual conference. (download conference presentations here).
Next up: Save the date for mhpa2016 from Sept. 21-23!
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