Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Health Scholars Criticize Medicaid Work Requirements, Saying Policy Contradicts Intent Of Program
Modern Healthcare: Medicaid Work Requirements Violate Program's Intent, Scholars Say
More than 40 public health scholars on Friday stepped into a lawsuit challenging Kentucky's plan to enact work requirements on Medicaid beneficiaries. They argue the policy contradicts the intent of the Medicaid demonstration statute to improve the program, and that unintended consequences could lead to massive revenue drops for health centers. (Luthi, 4/9)
In other Medicaid news —
Modern Healthcare: CMS Scales Back Evaluation Plans For Indiana Medicaid Waiver
The White House on Friday cleared the CMS to scale back efforts to evaluate Indiana's conservative approach to Medicaid expansion. The move could prevent the agency from gathering adequate data on to determine if the state's method of expansion harmed access to care. The White House's Office of Management and Budget granted the CMS permission to eliminate an Obama-era plan to survey beneficiaries of Indiana's Medicaid program, known as Healthy Indiana Plan 2.0. The survey would have gathered information from current and former HIP 2.0 beneficiaries on their experience in the program, including paying premium contributions, obtaining health savings accounts and being locked out of benefits if they failed to pay their premiums. (Dickson, 4/9)
Roll Call: Medicaid Work Debate Gets A Tennessee Twist
A growing number of mostly Republican-led states are itching to create work requirements for people on Medicaid, but finding a way to pay for it could prove challenging. In Tennessee, lawmakers want to add a Medicaid work mandate, but only if they can use federal — not state — dollars to make it happen. And they think there may be a way to do just that. Republicans have proposed taking money from a different government program that provides cash assistance to poor families and instead using it to cover the multimillion-dollar cost of creating and monitoring work requirements in its Medicaid program, known as TennCare. (Williams, 4/9)
New Orleans Times-Picayune: 'No Timeline' For Medicaid Work Requirements, State Says
Gov. John Bel Edwards' administration said Sunday it does not have a timeline for implementing work requirements for Medicaid recipients, though the Louisiana Department of Health is continuing to study the concept. The governor, a Democrat, announced in January that he was interested in putting work requirements for Louisiana Medicaid recipients into effect. So far though, the state Department of Health hasn't provided many details on what the Medicaid work program, an approach often favored by Republicans, might look like. (O'Donoghue, 4/9)
