Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
New Hampshire Pumps Brakes On Medicaid Work Requirements After 17,000 Found To Be Non-Compliant In First Month
Modern Healthcare: New Hampshire Delays Its Medicaid Work Requirement
Facing mounting fears about likely coverage losses, New Hampshire's Republican Gov. Chris Sununu announced Monday that he is delaying implementation of the state's Medicaid work requirement program for 120 days. In addition, Sununu signed a Democratic-sponsored bill that would halt the work requirement if 500 or more people are disenrolled due to noncompliance, or if providers report an increase in uncompensated care resulting from beneficiaries being disenrolled due to noncompliance. (Meyer, 7/8)
NH Times Union: Deadline For Medicaid Work Requirement Extended As State Goes Door To Door Seeking The Noncompliant
In New Hampshire, eligibility to qualify for Medicaid was expanded from 63 percent to 138 percent of the federal poverty level in 2015. Sununu said outreach efforts have included four direct mailings, radio ads, information booths and grocery and retail stores, 50,000 telephone calls, and text messages. They’ve also asked health care providers to inform patients of the requirements. “No other state has taken the efforts, and I think the pains if you will, of making sure we are engaging with this population as aggressively as we can,” Sununu said. “Making sure we get this right is absolutely paramount.” (Hayward, 7/8)
New Hampshire Public Radio: With 17,000 Facing Penalty, N.H. Delays Medicaid Work Requirement
Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner Jeff Meyers said that out of the 24,895 Medicaid recipients enrolled in June without a qualifying exemption, 16,874 people failed to provide proof to the state that they met the new Medicaid work rules, which require people to work for 100 hours each month, or prove some other type of qualifying community engagement. The low compliance rate comes despite months of outreach by the state, including radio ads, public information sessions, direct mailings and text messages. (Bookman, 7/8)
CQ: States Grapple With Medicaid Work Requirements
State action to implement work requirements into their Medicaid programs is heating up, as some states roll out their programs while others are fighting in court to keep them alive. New Hampshire announced Monday it would delay suspending any Medicaid coverage until September because of consumers' noncompliance with the work requirements. Meanwhile, Indiana on July 1 began the first steps of implementing its work requirements. Court action in three states is also expected in the coming months. (Raman, 7/9)
In other Medicaid news —
California Healthline: Medi-Cal Enrollment Among Immigrant Kids Stalls, Then Falls. Is Fear To Blame?
As California prepares to expand Medicaid coverage to young adults here illegally, the number of undocumented immigrant children in the program is slowly declining, new state data show. Unauthorized immigrant children have been eligible for Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program for low-income residents, since May 2016, and their enrollment peaked nearly a year later at 134,374, according to the data from the state Department of Health Care Services. (Ibarra, 7/8)
