Medicaid Changes May Just Shift Spending From Families To Administrative Bureaucracy, Experts Warn

Governing: Implementing States' Medicaid Wishes Won't Be Cheap
After years of having most of their health care requests denied by the Obama administration, conservative states seeking to add eligibility requirements to Medicaid have received a blessing. ... There are two big costs that come with implementing these kinds of changes, according to experts. There's the IT side: updating systems that house beneficiary data, in some cases creating entirely new ones. And then there's the personnel side: hiring more staff to track compliance and appeals, and training existing staff on the new requirements. (Quinn, 2/19)

CQ: Medicaid Changes Require Tens Of Millions In Upfront Costs
The addition of work requirements and other sweeping changes to Kentucky’s Medicaid program could cost nearly $187 million in the first six months alone to get up and running. Republican Gov. Matt Bevin projects that the program will eventually yield savings but the changes require an upfront investment in administrative expenses. Much of that money is aimed at creating complex electronic systems and other changes needed to track work hours, monthly premium payments and other elements of Kentucky’s recently approved plan to revamp the government insurance program for low-income Americans. (Williams, 2/22)

The Hill: Alaska State Lawmakers Look To Impose Medicaid Work Requirements 
Lawmakers in the Alaska Legislature have introduced bills that would require the state to seek work requirements for those enrolled in Medicaid. The bills follow the Trump administration's decision earlier this year to allow states to seek such requirements on Medicaid beneficiaries. (Roubein, 2/21)

The Washington Post: Va. House Speaker Drops A Few Names — Trump And Pence — In Medicaid Pitch
Leaders of Virginia’s House of Delegates are trying to sell wary fellow Republicans on Medicaid expansion by tying it to President Trump and Vice President Pence. House Speaker M. Kirkland Cox (R-Colonial Heights) contends that expanding the federal-state health-care program during the Trump administration offers the “best chance for conservative reforms.” He also compares the House’s expansion plan with the “Indiana-style model” adopted by that state in 2015, when Pence was its governor. (Vozzella, 2/21)

KCUR: Encouraged By Trump Administration, Missouri Lawmaker Seeks More State Control Over Medicaid 
Missouri’s general revenue spending on Medicaid has topped more than 2 billion dollars annually in recent years and its costs are rising. That’s a problem for Republican State Sen. David Sater of Springfield. “It continues to be the biggest inflation that we have in state programs, and we have to do something,” Sater says. The Springfield lawmaker is sponsoring a bill that would require Missouri to seek permission from the federal government to get what’s called a global waiver, basically allowing the state to create its own rules for operating Medicaid. (Smith, 2/21)

The Associated Press: Court: Kansas Can't Cut Medicaid Funds To Planned Parenthood
A federal appeals court says Kansas can't cut Medicaid funds to a Planned Parenthood affiliate over videos anti-abortion activists secretly recorded in 2015. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals' decision leaves in place a lower court's preliminary injunction that blocked Kansas from ending the contract. It is the fifth of six circuits to uphold the right of patients to receive health care from their preferred qualified provider. (2/21)

Kansas City Star: KanCare Eligibility A Maze For Kansas Seniors In Need Of Care
Advocates for elderly Kansans say a number of changes the state made to streamline the Medicaid application and renewal process have actually created a maze that seniors are getting lost in. ...Since then the number of seniors covered by KanCare for in-home nursing help has gone down and so has the number being covered for nursing home beds. Meanwhile, the state’s population has been aging. (Marso, 2/22)

KCUR: Federal Appeals Court Rejects Kansas’ Attempt To End Medicaid Funding For Planned Parenthood 
Kansas improperly sought to end Medicaid funding for Planned Parenthood, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday, rejecting the state's claims that the organization illegally trafficked in fetal parts and committed other wrongdoing. Upholding a lower court's injunction barring the state from terminating its Medicaid contract with Planned Parenthood, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said that states may not cut off healthcare providers from Medicaid “for any reason they see fit, especially when that reason is unrelated to the provider’s competence and the quality of the healthcare it provides.” (Margolies, 2/21)

Des Moines Register: Iowa Medicaid Director's Closed-Door Meetings Draw Democratic Criticism
Iowa’s new Medicaid director should not exclude lawmakers and the public from meetings at which social-service agencies are to air their problems with the state’s privately managed Medicaid program, leading Democratic legislators said Wednesday. Medicaid Director Mike Randol plans to hold his first meeting Thursday with leaders of agencies that care for poor or disabled Iowans. Many of those private agencies have complained that their bills have not been promptly or fully paid by three national companies hired in 2016 to administrate Iowa's $5 billion Medicaid program. Some small social-service agencies say the payment problems are pushing them to the brink of bankruptcy. (Leys, 2/21)