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MHPA
Medicaid Health Plans of America (MHPA), the leading trade association representing the Medicaid managed care industry, welcomes four newly elected officers to guide its board of directors.
Erhardt Preitauer, president of Horizon NJ Health, New Jersey's largest Medicaid plan, will serve as new chairman of MHPA's board. Jon Cotton, president and chief operating officer of Meridian Health Plan, the largest Medicaid plan in Michigan, has been appointed vice chairman. Catherine Anderson, UnitedHealthcare Community & State's national vice president of strategy and positioning, has been selected as the new secretary. Dennis Smith, president and CEO of Upper Peninsula Health Plan (UPHP) in Michigan, was re-elected treasurer.
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Modern Healthcare
The CMS has finalized a rule that provides states and plans no flexibility in meeting requirements to provide Medicaid enrollees and children the same level of benefits for mental health or substance-abuse treatment that they provide for medical and surgical care. The final rule, released Tuesday, applies provisions of the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 to managed-care plans contracting with Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program.
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Morning Consult
Republican healthcare leaders are leaning on the commission that recommends Medicaid policy to Congress to restrict commissioners’ involvement in lawsuits or advocacy concerning Obamacare, Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program. Leaders on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the Senate Finance Committee sent a letter Tuesday to Sara Rosenbaum, who chairs the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission, or MACPAC. They are concerned about preventing bias on a commission whose members may have advocated or litigated about low-income healthcare, or specifically about Obamacare, a sore spot for Republicans.
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Arkansas Online
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson's plans for next week's special legislative session on Medicaid exclude consideration of a proposal supported by opponents of managed care, a spokesman said Tuesday. The governor's agenda for the special session that begins April 6 will include a bill calling on the state to hire managed-care companies to provide care for the developmentally disabled and the mentally ill, as well as a bill to make changes in the state's expanded Medicaid program through an initiative called Arkansas Works.
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The News & Observer
Speakers at the first formal public hearing on the state of North Carolina's planned Medicaid overhaul said they wanted the government insurance expanded to cover more people, worried that increased paperwork would drive away doctors, and asked why the state was changing a system at all. North Carolina's Department of Health and Human Services is preparing to ask the federal government to approve major changes in Medicaid that will have most of its beneficiaries sign up for health plans run by insurance companies, hospitals or other providers. Medicaid privatization was a priority for legislators last year.
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New Hampshire Public Radio
After more than a year of debates and discussion, lawmakers could take their final vote Thursday on whether to continue the state of New Hampshire's Medicaid expansion program for another two years. If the Senate passes the bill without change, it could be signed into law as early as this week. Currently 48,000 New Hampshire residents are insured through the state's Medicaid expansion program. But the program, authorized through the federal Affordable Care Act, is scheduled to expire at the end of this year.
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The Associated Press via Akron Beacon Journal
Ohio Republican Gov. John Kasich's administration said Wednesday it's moving forward with plans to require more than 1 million Ohioans on Medicaid to pay a new monthly cost for their health coverage or potentially lose it. House Republicans added the provision to the state budget last year. The new charge would require federal approval. If successful, officials plan to begin requiring Medicaid recipients to pay into a health-savings account to support the cost of their coverage beginning in 2018.
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Nebraska Radio Network
Nebraska state legislators have effectively killed Medicaid expansion, once again. The latest proposal to expand Medicaid under provisions of the Affordable Care Act has been shelved for the remainder of the session after senators approved a "bracket" motion 28-20. Sen. John McCollister told colleagues during legislative debate his bill, L.B. 1032, addressed many of the concerns expressed in past debates about Medicaid expansion.
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The New York Times
Of this, everyone in the State Capitol seems certain: New York will eventually have a budget. The question is when. With time running short before the state’s fiscal year ends on Thursday, leaders here were still dissecting and debating the details of what is expected to be a spending plan topping $150 billion.
New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo seemed confident that the legislature would pass a budget by midnight Thursday, saying that there was "conceptual agreement" on two knotty issues: raising the state’s minimum wage and establishing paid family leave. The governor has sought to increase the minimum wage to $15, but he stopped short of assuring that the agreement would necessarily go into effect statewide, saying only "that's my plan."
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The Tennessean
States that expanded Medicaid programs using federal funding are reaping economic benefits, a new study finds as the long-running healthcare debate rages anew in Tennessee's legislature. Tennessee is among 19 states that have, thus far, opted to not expand coverage to those who fall in the uninsured gap between qualifying for traditional Medicaid and being qualified to buy insurance on the federally run exchange.
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The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation
Oral health is a critical but often overlooked component of overall health and well-being. Although good oral health can be achieved through preventive care, regular self-care and the early detection, treatment and management of problems, many people suffer from poor oral health, which often has additional adverse effects on their general health and quality of life.
The prevalence of dental disease and tooth loss is disproportionately high among people with low income, reflecting lack of access to dental coverage and care. Racial and ethnic disparities in these measures are also pronounced.
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The Hill
The new head of Washington, D.C.'s biggest drug lobby has a strategy to help overcome a tortuous year of bad publicity on pricing: More lab coats on Capitol Hill. Steve Ubl, president and CEO of the Pharmaceutical Researcher and Manufacturers Association (PhRMA), plans to deploy top scientists and researchers to meet with lawmakers in a potentially make-or-break year for the industry.
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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.
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.
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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