As Congress Tarries On Health Law Debate, Concerns Grow Among Medicaid Beneficiaries
Among the groups worried about future Medicaid payments are rural hospitals and schools with large numbers of students with special needs. Meanwhile, the friction among Kansas Republicans' priorities mirrors what's developing on the national scene, and Hawaii's Democratic congressional delegation seeks Medicaid help for other Pacific Islanders.
Modern Healthcare:
No Signs Of Relief: Rural Providers Remain On Edge Over ACA's Uncertain Future
The latest Republican effort to replace the ACA failed to garner enough vote to pass the Senate, leaving Medicaid programs as they are, for now. But rural healthcare providers such as [Fairview (Okla.) Regional Medical Center] remain concerned that the partisan wrangling over the healthcare law's future will just perpetuate the inertia over addressing the financial problems most rural hospitals now face. (Johnson, 7/22)
The Washington Post:
Fear Of Medicaid Cuts Looms At School That Serves Students With Disabilities
At [St. Coletta Special Education Public Charter School in Southeast Washington], where all students have special needs, tiny pieces of progress can add up to life-changing trajectories. The school relies on funding from Medicaid to employ a cadre of therapists. But with each twist in the health-care debate on Capitol Hill, staff members wonder whether their Medicaid dollars could be at risk. (McLaren, 7/22)
Kansas City Star:
Kansas Republican Rift Over Medicaid Expansion Now Stymies Obamacare
For years a small but growing group of Kansas Republicans have pushed to accept the ACA’s federal money to expand Medicaid eligibility to everyone who makes up to 138 percent of the federal poverty line. For years more conservative Kansas Republicans have successfully pushed back, arguing the state’s program should remain largely restricted to children, pregnant women, the elderly and people with disabilities. (Marso, 7/21)
CQ Magazine:
Amidst Effort To Preserve Medicaid Funding, Hawaii Democrats Seek More Of It
As part of their failed effort, thus far, to repeal and replace the 2010 health care law, Republicans in Congress tried to cap spending on Medicaid, the state-federal program that provides health care to the poor and near-poor. Defenders of the Affordable Care Act are trying just to defend the status quo. So it runs against the grain that Hawaii Democrats are taking time to make a case that Medicaid spending should be expanded. The state’s two senators, Mazie K. Hirono and Brian Schatz, and its two representatives, Colleen Hanabusa and Tulsi Gabbard, have introduced legislation (S 1391 and HR 2982) to reinstate Medicaid coverage for citizens of three island nations in the Pacific Ocean that saw fighting between U.S. and Japanese forces during World War II — the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of Palau — who are living in the United States. (Mauff, 7/24)
And in state Medicaid news —
Tampa Bay Times:
Paralyzed Patients In Florida Fear Losing Health Care At Home
[Albert] Hort is one of about 500 Floridians with brain or spinal cord injuries who fear that a change in Florida health care law will force them out of their own homes and into nursing homes. That change — dropping a Medicaid waiver program and putting patients who were using it on managed care — also affects cystic fibrosis and AIDS patients who receive medical care at home. (Morgan, 7/24)
The Associated Press:
DHS Won't Name Commenters On Plan To Drug Test Medicaid Applicants
The Wisconsin Department of Health Services is wrong to keep secret the names of people who publicly commented about Gov. Scott Walker’s proposal to drug-test Medicaid applicants, open records advocates and a former head attorney for the agency said. The department insisted it is doing what is required to protect health information under the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, as well as under state laws protecting the identity of Medicaid applicants. (Bauer, 7/24)
The CT Mirror:
Report: Medicaid-Expansion States, Led By CT, Reduce Per-Person Costs
Per-person Medicaid spending in Connecticut dropped an average of 5.7 percent per year from 2010 to 2014, compared with an increase of 2.5 percent for private health insurance and an increase of 1.6 percent for Medicare, according to a analysis of federal data by Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services researchers published in the journal Health Affairs. The article cites the implementation of the Affordable Care Act as having the most widespread impact on the health sector nationwide in the 2010-2014 period. ... An influx of healthier Medicaid enrollees under the expansion is credited with helping to bring down costs. (Kara, 7/24)
