Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Kansas Officials Slowing Plans For Renewing Private Management Of Medicaid
Kansas Health Institute: KanCare Renewal Efforts Slow In Anticipation Of Federal Changes
Anticipating significant changes in federal health care policy, Kansas officials are slowing their timeline for renewing KanCare, the state’s privatized Medicaid program. Some of the health policy changes favored by President-elect Donald Trump and Republican congressional leaders would significantly alter the way Medicaid is funded and relax rules that dictate who and what states must cover. But it isn’t yet clear which of those changes will be included in promised legislation to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare. (McLean, 11/18)
Kansas Health Institute: Legislators Suggest Delaying Social Services Software Shift
A yearlong backlog of Kansas Medicaid applications is almost gone, but legislators from both parties said Friday that Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration should consider delaying a plan to include applications for social services in the same processing software that contributed to the backlog. Applications for social programs like food assistance are scheduled to be folded into the Kansas Eligibility Enforcement System, or KEES, in April. But during a Statehouse hearing, several lawmakers, including Sen. Jim Denning, asked Kansas Department of Health and Environment Secretary Susan Mosier if that should be pushed back given problems with the Medicaid portion of the system. (Marso, 11/18)
Health News Florida: Nursing Homes Fear Proposed Payment System Will Create Winners And Losers
Nursing homes are gearing up to fight a plan that could result in what they say are widely varied Medicaid reimbursement rates. Its part of a legislative push for efficiency, but the move is worrying providers in the $4.8 billion program. (Hatter, 11/20)
Kaiser Health News: In Depressed Rural Kentucky, Worries Grow Over Medicaid
Gov. Matt Bevin, who was elected in 2015, has argued Kentucky cannot afford Medicaid in its current form. Obamacare permitted states to use federal funds to broaden Medicaid eligibility to all adults with incomes at or below 138 percent of the federal poverty level, now $11,880 for individuals. Kentucky’s enrollment has doubled since late 2013 and today almost a third of its residents are in the program. That’s led to the one of the sharpest drops in any state’s uninsured rate, to 7.5 percent in 2015 from 20 percent two years earlier. Kentucky’s achievement owed much to the success of its state-run health insurance exchange, Kynect, in promoting new coverage options under the health law. Kynect was launched under Bevin’s Democratic predecessor, Steve Beshear, and dismantled by Bevin this year. (Galewitz, 11/21)
Marketplace: Alabama Taps Its Oil-Spill Fund To Close Medicaid Gap
Alabama is moving ahead with a new version of Medicaid. But it’s hit some big financial bumps, and the plan has been delayed a year. The question was how to overcome a big budget shortfall. The answer, state lawmakers agreed, was to take money from the settlement fund that BP agreed to pay the state after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. In Alabama, just over one in four residents — 1.2 million people — are on Medicaid. But the state’s insurance program for the poor isn’t in the clear. (Douban, 11/18)
