Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
HHS Says Utah's Request For Limited Medicaid Expansion Will Wait For Trump Administration
Salt Lake Tribune: Obama Administration Will Not Rule On Utah’s Scaled-Back Medicaid Expansion Plan
When President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated Jan. 20, the fate of Utah's small-scale Medicaid expansion plan will be up to his administration. And health officials say that probably means approval of the plan is still far away. "It could be a long time unless the Utah [plan] is viewed as an example the Trump administration wants to use to a set a standard for all future" plans," said Jason Stevenson, education and communications director for the Utah Health Policy Project. "If we're the guinea pig, that would accelerate the approval process." (Stuckey, 1/11)
Deseret News: Utah's Medicaid Expansion Decision Falls To Trump Administration
The Obama administration recently informed the Utah Department of Health that it would not take action on Utah's small-scale Medicaid expansion proposal, according to Utah Department of Health spokeswoman Kolbi Young. ... Utah's Medicaid expansion proposal was approved by state lawmakers last year after years of fighting, but it remains up to the federal government to approve the waiver. Originally estimated to expand Medicaid coverage to 16,000 of Utah's most vulnerable, the estimate was later revised down to 10,000. (Chen, 1/11)
Wisconsin Public Radio: Both State, Feds May Seek Changes To Medicaid
Wisconsin hopes to change Medicaid in several ways. The Walker administration would like participants to undergo drug testing, charge smokers more and put time limits on how long people could use Medicaid. At a capitol forum Wednesday put on by the Evidence-Based Health Policy Project, State Medicaid Director Michael Heifetz said Wisconsin would need a waiver from federal health officials to make the proposed changes. Heifetz noted Gov. Scott Walker's entitlement reforms come as top Republicans in Washington, D.C. are pushing for states to get federal block grants they could spend as they wish on Medicaid. (Mills, 1/11)
Wisconsin State Journal: Changes To Obamacare, Medicaid Could Have Big Impact In State
Plans by President-elect Donald Trump and Congress to overturn the Affordable Care Act and alter Medicaid could have a significant impact in Wisconsin, where much of a recent 38 percent drop in the uninsured rate came from the health law’s exchange, health care experts said Wednesday. “We don’t want to lose ground on the insurance coverage,” Donna Friedsam, health policy programs director at UW-Madison’s Population Health Institute, said during a panel discussion at the Capitol. (Wahlberg, 1/11)
Grand Forks (N.D.) Herald: North Dakota Lawmakers Weigh Options, Uncertainty On Medicaid Expansion
With uncertainty looming over the fate of a major federal health care law, North Dakota lawmakers are weighing their options over the Medicaid expansion program that's set to expire later this year. ... When the state Legislature authorized the program in 2013, it included a sunset clause of July 31, 2017. Former Gov. Jack Dalrymple's final executive budget proposed removing the sunset clause, effectively extending Medicaid expansion indefinitely. Mike Nowatzki, the spokesman for Gov. Doug Burgum, said the new governor believes there are benefits to the expanded Medicaid program in North Dakota. (Hageman, 1/11)
The Associated Press: Missouri Lawmakers Seek To Convert Medicaid To Block Grant
Not waiting for President-elect Donald Trump to act first, some Missouri Republican lawmakers are pressing for a health care overhaul that could convert the state's Medicaid program into a block grant from the federal government. A Republican-led Senate committee heard testimony Wednesday on legislation that would direct the state to seek a rarely granted "global waiver" from federal Medicaid requirements to reshape the state's health care program for the poor. The intent is to seek a block grant that would provide the state greater flexibility on how to spend it. (Leib, 1/11)
Columbia, Mo., Missourian: Medicaid Proposal Would Change Federal Funding, Give State More Control
Republican lawmakers, seeking a way to limit Medicaid costs, are trying to take more state control of how that money is spent in Missouri. Proposed legislation would ask the federal government to give a lump sum of Medicaid funds to Missouri, rather than paying for each person in the state program. The move would allow the state to have more autonomy in how the money is dispersed. ... Sen. Jill Schupp, D-St. Louis County, said the waiver would mean less federal money for Missourians that Obamacare would have provided. (Morrisroe, 1/11)
Arkansas Online: Eliminated State's Medicaid Sign-Up Backlog, DHS Chief Reports
With the help of about 250 temporary caseworkers, the Arkansas Department of Human Services "essentially" met its goal to eliminate a backlog of Medicaid applications and other overdue paperwork by the end of 2016, the department's director said in a letter Wednesday. As of Dec. 30, the department had 692 Medicaid cases with overdue paperwork, but none of those involved people who were waiting for their applications to be approved, Director Cindy Gillespie said in the letter to Gov. Asa Hutchinson. (Davis, 1/12)
Fort Smith, Ark., Times Record: Arkansas DHS: Medicaid Case Backlog Under 700
In a letter to Gov. Asa Hutchinson dated Sunday and released to the news media on Wednesday, Gillespie said that since May, the agency has reduced the backlog from more than 140,000 cases - some of them dating back as far as 2014 - to 692. "Our goal was to clear the backlog by year's end, and we have essentially done that," she said in the letter. (Lyon, 1/12)
Des Moines Register: Medicaid Privatization Has Not Been 'Catastrophic,' State Leader Says
A top state administrator disputes complaints that Iowa’s shift to private Medicaid management has been “drastically underfunded” and “a catastrophic experience" for the companies that took on the task. ... The three managed-care companies still have not agreed to accept an extra $127.7 million in state and federal money that Iowa leaders offered in October. The companies have contended the increase would be insufficient to cover the hundreds of millions of dollars they have lost in Iowa over the past year. (Leys, 1/11)
Hartford (Conn.) Courant: State, Medicaid Provider To Try To Settle Dispute Over Electronic Monitoring Of Workers In Client Homes
The state Wednesday afternoon agreed to try to repair a rift with the largest provider of home-care for elderly Medicaid clients arising from the firm's refusal to participate in a new fraud-busting monitoring system that measures the time workers spend in the homes and the tasks they complete. Superior Court Judge Thomas G. Moukawsher at a hearing earlier Wednesday had suggested that the two sides try to reach a settlement. (Kovner, 1/11)
