North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper recommended to legislators on Wednesday how to spend the state's remaining COVID-19 federal relief dollars, mainly for public health, K-12 schools and local governments. But the Democrat also wants to adjust now the annual state government spending plan that began July 1. He's asking to spend $559 million more in state dollars for things such as disaster relief and education for at-risk students. He also wants teacher bonuses well beyond what Republican lawmakers approved in June.
As the Texas fiscal year closes amid the coronavirus pandemic, state agencies are quietly moving forward with budget cuts through a process controlled entirely by top Republicans, putting services for low-income Texans in jeopardy at a time advocates and some lawmakers say they are needed most. More than $380 million in cuts were slated for the fiscal year that ends Monday, without formal input from the state Legislature, which negotiates the state budget. Another $670 million are scheduled for the coming fiscal year, and nearly 5,000 full-time jobs are at risk over the biennium, according to a recent budget document obtained by Hearst Newspapers.
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With just 68 days to go, North Carolina's race for the U.S. Senate is still considered a toss-up. In both the recent Emerson College and Civitas polls, incumbent Republican Thom Tillis is trailing his Democratic challenger Cal Cunningham. One big sticking point for voters may be Medicaid expansion, a topic they've strongly disagreed on.
Attorney General explanations for a proposed initiated constitutional amendment and a proposed initiated measure have been filed with the Secretary of State. These explanations will appear on petitions that will be circulated by the sponsor, Rick Weiland. If the sponsor gets a sufficient number of signatures by November 2021, the proposed amendment may be placed on the ballot for the November 2022 general election.
As many Americans drop out of employer plans and seek coverage elsewhere amid the pandemic, insurers will need to adjust their marketing strategies to reach them more effectively, a new report shows. While some of these people will enroll in a spouse or another family member's coverage, most will turn to the Affordable Care Act exchanges and Medicaid. Customers are coming to those markets looking for digital care and a sense of empowerment in managing their own care, analysts at Deloitte say.
Medicaid prescriptions for opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone have increased dramatically over the last decade, a new analysis shows. Medicaid covered 3,328 naloxone prescriptions in 2010, a number that rose 71-fold to reach 236,388 in 2018, according to a new report from the Urban Institute. Generic naloxone products made up 99% of prescriptions in 2010, but just 11% in 2018.
Over the past two decades, opioid overdose mortality nationwide more than doubled from 21,000 deaths in 2000 to 47,000 deaths in 2017. In a new study of Medicaid enrollees, a team of LDI fellows sheds light on the degree to which new or repeated overdoses may be driving this trend — with significant implications for overdose reduction.
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Service providers across New York for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities could be forced to cut or rollback programs and lay off staff as expenses rise from the COVID-19 pandemic and policy changes at the state and national level are resulting in budget cuts.
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In new emergency rules, the Trump administration warned hospitals that it would revoke Medicare and Medicaid dollars if coronavirus patient data and test results are not reported to HHS. The reporting program was previously voluntary.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released a Medicaid informational bulletin Monday providing guidance to states on how they can help increase Medicaid reimbursement for skilled nursing facilities in an effort to mitigate the further spread of COVID-19 within these facilities. The guidance focuses on the implementation of specific infection control practices, such as designating a quarantine or isolation wing for COVID-19 patients.
The COVID-19 pandemic has been the first serious test for the Affordable Care Act as a new social safety net — and the law's provisions have proven adept, if imperfect, in protecting Americans from losing health insurance in the middle of an infectious disease outbreak and an economic crisis.
Two new analyses published in the last week explain concisely the depth of coverage losses resulting from the job losses of the last six months and the ACA's success in catching many of those people to give them a new health insurance plan.
