State Health Watch Archives – June 1, 2011
June 1, 2011
View Issues
-
If states opt to ignore Medicaid expansion, are feds' hands tied?
If a state doesn't institute the Medicaid expansion included in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), that state would no longer be eligible for federal Medicaid funds, just as it would not be eligible if it didn't cover children up to the current mandatory levels, says Edwin Park, vice president for health policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington, DC. -
Minnesota opts for early expansion of Medicaid
Minnesota faces a projected state budget deficit of $5 billion for the next biennium and increased program enrollment and health care costs in Medical Assistance, Minnesota's Medicaid program, reports David Godfrey, Minnesota state Medicaid director. -
States will be looking for relief, help with Medicaid
While opting out of Medicaid altogether doesn't seem to be a realistic option for states currently, Stan Rosenstein, MPA, principal advisor at Health Management Associates in Sacramento, CA, and former California Medicaid director, doesn't think the issue has gone away. -
Do some states want federal takeover of Medicaid program?
There are probably some states that wouldn't mind if their Medicaid program was taken over by the federal government, according to Leslie Hendrickson, PhD, principal of Hendrickson Development, an East Windsor, NJ-based consulting group which helps to develop and strengthen long-term care programs -
Will challenge to individual mandate actually succeed?
Efforts to eliminate the individual mandate requiring individuals to purchase health care insurance, included in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), "have a probability of success," according to Leslie Hendrickson, PhD, principal of Hendrickson Development, an East Windsor, NJ-based consulting group which helps to develop and strengthen long-term care programs. -
Is Medicaid going to be ready for a "culture of coverage?"
Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) will have roughly 16 million additional enrollees as a result of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), according to the Congressional Budget Office in Washington, DC, but how quickly will these individuals enroll? According to Jocelyn Guyer, co-executive director of Georgetown University's Center for Children and Families in Washington, DC, "If there is an expectation of people having coverage, that will happen more quickly and be more widespread." -
Expert recommends states push for high-volume enrollment for 2014
States should implement a one-time, high-volume enrollment push at the launch of health reform, recommends Beth Morrow, director of health information technology initiatives for The Children's Partnership, a child advocacy organization with offices in Washington, DC, and Santa Monica, CA. To streamline the enrollment process, she says, states can build on the innovative efforts undertaken by Louisiana and Alabama. -
Efforts under way to roll back MOE requirements
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and Congress will be under significant political pressure to roll back the maintenance of effort (MOE) requirements included in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), according to Michael Miller, director of policy at Community Catalyst in Boston, "either wholesale, or via individual waiver applications such as that filed by Arizona." -
Medicaid programs are facing "mismatch" with primary care
The states with the largest expected Medicaid enrollment growth are the very ones that have the fewest number of primary care physicians, according to a March 2011 report.1 Temporary increases in Medicaid reimbursement are unlikely to make much of a difference in states facing the biggest enrollment increases, says study author Peter Cunningham, PhD, a senior fellow and director of quantitative research at the Center for Studying Health System Change in Washington, DC. -
Influx of Medicaid providers needed for newly eligible
The Medicaid expansion will pose a major challenge in terms of where the newly insured will be able to receive care in 2014, according to Daniel R. Hawkins, senior vice president for public policy and research at the National Association of Community Health Centers in Washington, DC. -
Primary care practices will need extra help to transform
When Craig Thiele, MD, chief medical officer of Dayton, OH-based CareSource, the state's largest Medicaid managed care plan, thinks of 2014, he remembers the need to "be sure, from the sheer aspect of supply and demand, that we don't get into trouble."