Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Millions Likely To Lose Medicaid When 'Continuous Coverage' Ends
NPR: 6.8 Million Expected To Lose Medicaid When Paperwork Hurdles Return
Signing up for Medicaid correctly is about to become an important step for enrollees again after a three-year break from paperwork hurdles. In 2020, the federal government recognized that a pandemic would be a bad time for people to lose access to medical care, so it required states to keep people on Medicaid as long as the country was in a public health emergency. The pandemic continues and so has the public health emergency, most recently renewed on Jan. 11. (Yu, 1/24)
Fierce Healthcare: Managed Care Plans, States Can Now Text Medicaid Beneficiaries To Warn Of Enrollment Changes
Managed care plans and states can now deliver robocalls and texts Medicaid beneficiaries without fear of violating a federal law, a critical change as states face eligibility redeterminations in a few months. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released new guidance Tuesday on the change after getting a letter from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) back in April 2022. States and managed care plans face a looming April 1 deadline to start redetermining the eligibility of everyone on Medicaid. (King, 1/24)
How some states are preparing —
WCAX: Thousands Of Vermonters Expected To Lose Medicaid Following Program Change
Millions of low-income Americans -- including thousands of Vermonters -- could lose their Medicaid benefits at the end of March as a pandemic policy known as “continuous enrollment” ends. Now, state officials are redetermining who is eligible, and some Vermonters will have to make difficult choices. (Cutler, 1/24)
The Oregonian: 300,000 Oregonians At Risk Of Losing State Health Insurance. Here’s Why
An estimated 300,000 Oregonians could lose state health insurance in the next 16 months because they no longer qualify for state coverage made more widely available during the COVID-19 pandemic. All approximately 1.5 million people receiving coverage through the state will soon need to be financially eligible for the program to keep their state health insurance, following a three-year federal reprieve from normal requirements due to the pandemic. (Zarkhin, 1/24)
Al.Com: Uninsured To Rise In Alabama As Pandemic Protections End For Medicaid
Jennifer Harris, health policy advocate for the non-profit advocacy group Alabama Arise, said she is worried that some people who might not realize their insurance is ending or that they need to take steps to prevent losing their Medicaid will fall through the cracks during the process. (Whites-Koditschek, 1/24)
In other Medicaid news —
The CT Mirror: CT Medicare Enrollees Could See Savings Under Insulin Price Cap
Seniors enrolled in Medicare will start seeing the monthly price for insulin capped at $35 as parts of a federal law go into effect this year. Under the new health provision, a federal agency estimates that thousands in Connecticut could see lower out-of-pocket costs for the life-saving drug. (Hagen, 1/24)
Georgia Public Broadcasting: GBPI Says Full Medicaid Expansion Is More Fiscally Responsible Than Georgia's Waiver Plan
The state legislature has a $6.6 billion surplus heading into the next fiscal year, and the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute says a lot more resources are being directed at the governor's Medicaid expansion plan. (Eldridge, 1/24)
Stat: Red Tape Restricts Access To Pregnancy Tech For Medicaid Patients
For low-income patients, the challenges of pregnancy are only compounded by the challenges of prenatal care: the dozen or so doctors’ appointments, the time off work or childcare, the cost of parking and public transit. (Ravindranath, 1/24)
News Service of Florida: Florida Runs Up A $1.3 Million Tab In The Medicaid Transgender Case
Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration has authorized more than $1.3 million for legal and expert-witness fees in the state’s effort to ban Medicaid coverage of transgender treatments, a review of state records by The News Service of Florida shows. (Kam, 1/24)
