Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Energized By Success In Other Conservative States, Advocates Work To Get Medicaid Expansion On Florida's 2020 Ballot
Politico: Groups Quietly Mount Medicaid Expansion Ballot Campaign In Florida
Obamacare supporters are mounting a campaign to get Medicaid expansion on the Florida ballot in 2020, potentially elevating the Obamacare program as a key election issue in the presidential swing state. A mix of national and local health care groups, energized by the approval of Medicaid expansion ballot initiatives in three conservative states in November, have been collecting signatures for weeks to support a voter referendum that could cover an additional 700,000 low-income Florida adults. For now, however, the groups aren't saying much publicly about the effort. (Pradhan, 2/6)
Health News Florida: AIDS Group Seeks To Prevent Patient Shift
The AIDS Healthcare Foundation has filed a lawsuit in Leon County circuit court arguing that it’s illegal for the state to require patients with HIV and AIDS in Southeast Florida to switch Medicaid managed-care plans by the end of the month. The lawsuit, filed Monday, is the latest move in a long-running fight between the AIDS Healthcare Foundation and the agency about serving Medicaid beneficiaries in Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe counties. (Sexton, 2/6)
North Carolina Health News: Five Companies, $30 Billion Over Five Years: North Carolina Announces Its Medicaid Managed Care Selections
North Carolina’s state health agency named the five managed care groups who will receive a combined $6 billion in annual Medicaid contracts, ushering in a massive overhaul of how the state cares for some of its most vulnerable residents. The announcement Monday was expected, the most recent step after the Republican-led state legislature in 2015 scrapped the state’s existing fee-for-service management of its Medicaid program for the more than 2.1 million low-income seniors, disabled persons, children and their families on Medicaid. (Ovaska-Few, 2/5)
