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USA Today
You have to be very impoverished or very sick to qualify for Medicaid late in life. No wonder people put off thinking about it. It's also hardly the way most of us would want to live out our final days — or years. Depending on whether your state has special waivers allowing for limited at-home care, most Medicaid care will mean sharing a nursing home room with other people.
Although many people think about ways to shelter assets so they can qualify for Medicaid sooner, Urban Institute research has shown it isn't all that common. "There are a lot of families making hard decisions on how to allocate money they've saved all their lives," says Jeff Myers, CEO of Medicaid Health Plans of America. "It's a big social issue."
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MHPA and Institute for Medicaid Innovation
Last year, MHPA and the Institute for Medicaid Innovation (IMI) received nearly 100 submissions for consideration in the annual best practices compendium. This year, we have two opportunities for you to submit best practices:
CHildhood Obesity Prevent & Treatment (CHOPT) for Medicaid
The IMI, in partnership with MHPA and ACAP, was awarded an RWJF grant specific to childhood obesity prevention and treatment that we have named CHOPT for Medicaid. We are conducting an environmental scan (questionnaire for health plans) and soliciting examples of best practices.
The following is the timeline for participating in this project.
March 27: Best Practices Submission Form DUE (NOTE: Submissions from MHPA members are automatically sent for review and inclusion in the annual compendium.)
Oct. 28: Childhood Obesity Summit (D.C.)
2016-2017 Medicaid Managed Care Best Practices Compendium
The categories for this year's compendium remain the same; women's and maternal health, child health, behavioral health, long-term care and transitions of care and expansion population. However, the deadlines for submission are earlier due to MHPA's annual conference occurring in September, instead of November as last year.
The following is the timeline for this year's submission cycle.
April 30: Best Practices Submission Form DUE
Sept. 21: Release of Compendium and Announcement of Awards at MHPA Conference (D.C.)
Women's Reproductive Health Project
The IMI is also leading a women's reproductive health project that is funded by the Kaiser Family Foundation. We will be administering a questionnaire developed by your colleagues at Medicaid health plans that will include an opportunity to briefly identify innovative and promising best practices, develop an issue brief and host a policy briefing with Kaiser. We encourage your participation in the following ways:
April 12: Questionnaire emailed to plans
May 16: Questionnaire DUE
TBD: Kaiser and Institute Joint Policy Briefing (D.C.)
Please send your submissions and any questions to Jennifer Moore.
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Forbes
States that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act saw more job growth, lower health inflation and spent less on social and health services unneeded once more residents had medical coverage, a new analysis shows. A new report issued by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation said states that opted to expand Medicaid coverage for poor Americans are saving "in many cases, tens of millions of dollars." Researchers examined savings and increased revenue for 12 states that expanded Medicaid in an update of a report first issued last year.
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The Hill
President Obama is using the sixth anniversary of Obamacare to tout the law as a success.
"After nearly a century of effort, and thanks to the thousands of people who fought so hard to pass and implement this law, we have at last succeeded in leaving our kids and grandkids a country where pre-existing conditions exclusions are a thing of the past, affordable options are within our reach, and healthcare is no longer a privilege, but a right," Obama said in a statement Tuesday, one day ahead of the anniversary of the law's signing.
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The Huffington Post
In his opening remarks at the Full House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing on the heroin epidemic, Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings slammed the pharmaceutical company that makes the overdose antidote naloxone for profiting off the crisis.
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The Hill
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is stepping up the safety warnings on the labels of powerful painkillers amid a national epidemic of drug overdoses. Drug companies will now have to include specific warnings about "serious risks of misuse, abuse, addiction, overdose and death" on all immediate-release painkillers like oxycodone and codeine. The change will affect 228 medications, according to the FDA.
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The Courier-Journal
In a largely symbolic action, the Kentucky House voted Tuesday to preserve the state's health insurance exchange, kynect, and its expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. The votes, carried by the Democratic majority, came the same day as a new, national study found that states that have expanded Medicaid under the law also known as Obamacare are faring far better than states that have rejected the additional health coverage.
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Kaiser Health News
Reginald Rogers owes his dentist a debt of gratitude for his new dentures, but no money. Indiana's Medicaid program has them covered, a godsend for the almost toothless former steelworker who hasn't held a steady job for years and lives in his daughter's basement. Rogers is among the more than 240,000 low-income people who gained health coverage in the past year when Indiana expanded Medicaid as part of the Affordable Care Act. Rogers pays $1 a month — a fee that is a hallmark of the state's controversial plan.
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New Hampshire Union Leader
The battleground over Medicaid expansion shifted to the Senate on Tuesday with supporters and opponents reiterating their arguments at a public hearing. Supporters say the New Hampshire Health Protection Program provides health coverage for nearly 49,000 low-income adults, helps to ensure a healthier workforce, puts the brakes on increases in health care and insurance premiums and is the best tool the state has to fight the opioid crisis gripping New Hampshire.
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Arkansas Online
Arkansas' healthcare system and its budget will face turmoil if state lawmakers don't keep the state's hybrid Medicaid expansion, Gov. Asa Hutchinson warned at a town hall Tuesday aimed at rallying support for the program. The Republican said he will release in the coming days draft legislation for his plan to keep and rework the state's expansion, which uses federal funds to purchase private insurance for low-income residents. Hutchinson has proposed adding new restrictions to the program, which covers more than 250,000 people.
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The Associated Press via The Charlotte Observer
Idaho lawmakers have failed to finalize a proposal to expand Medicaid eligibility that would appease the Republican supermajority in the waning days of the legislative session. Instead, two minor proposals were approved Wednesday by the House to devote more resources to studying the so-called Medicaid gap population.
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Kaiser Health News
Montana's new Medicaid expansion just got its first progress report, and it is exceeding expectations. Initial projections were for about 23,000 of the state’s estimated 70,000 Medicaid-eligible residents to take up the new coverage in its first year. Instead, in the first quarter, since its rollout on Jan. 1, enrollment is at 38,298.
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Inside Health Policy
Introducing Medicaid Roundup, a new monthly feature from Inside Health Policy offering news and analysis of emerging issues and major policies affecting Medicaid stakeholders. This issue features Managed Care Reg, Anti-Fraud Measures and Mental Health, with MHPA CEO Jeff Myers commenting on the medical loss ratio: "MHPA still asserts that the MLR is an arbitrary number that's wholly unnecessary given the requirement already in place that states set actuarially sound rates for Medicaid health plans."
Read more with a trial subscription here.
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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