Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Ohio GOP Gubernatorial Candidate's Promise To Support Medicaid Expansion Nets Him Doctors' Endorsement
The Associated Press: Docs Back DeWine After He Commits To Keep Medicaid Expansion
Ohio's largest organization of doctors backed Attorney General Mike DeWine for governor Wednesday after the Republican committed to supporting — but improving — Medicaid expansion. The Ohio State Medical Association PAC cited DeWine's stance favoring expansion of the government health insurance program in its endorsement. It also said it favors DeWine for his commitment to increasing treatment options for opioid addiction, lowering prescription drug costs and reducing physicians' administrative burdens. (7/11)
Cleveland Plain Dealer: Mike DeWine Says He'd Keep Ohio's Medicaid Expansion As Governor
DeWine and running mate Jon Husted also said at a Wednesday news conference that they would seek to require healthy adults who are covered under Medicaid expansion to work at least 20 hours per week or enroll in job training or a drug treatment program. Such a proposal differentiates DeWine from his Democratic opponent, Richard Cordray, who supports Medicaid expansion. (Pelzer, 7/11)
WFAA: Texas Couple Considering Divorce To Afford Daughter's Healthcare
A Texas Army veteran and his wife are considering getting a divorce in order to qualify for Medicaid and alleviate some of the costs of their daughter's healthcare. (Zakalik, 7/11)
KCUR: Kansas Settles Suit Over Hepatitis C Coverage For Medicaid Patients
Kansas has agreed to settle a lawsuit alleging the state’s Medicaid program sets too many barriers for hepatitis C patients to receive potentially life-saving but expensive medications. Terms of the settlement have yet to be finalized, but the parties filed a notice with the court Tuesday afternoon that they had resolved the case after mediation. ...The lawsuit, which was filed in February, alleged that KanCare – Kansas’ privatized Medicaid program – denied Medicaid patients coverage for direct-acting antiviral drugs that have a 90 percent cure rate for hepatitis C. Before the advent of direct-acting antiviral drugs, treatments had cure rates of less than 50 percent and more extensive side effects. (Margolies, 7/11)
California Healthline: Insurers Fall Short In Catching And Reporting Medicaid Fraud, Inspectors Find
Despite receiving billions of dollars in taxpayer money, Medicaid insurers are lax in ferreting out fraud and neglect to tell states about unscrupulous medical providers, according to a federal report released Thursday. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ inspector general’s office said a third of the health plans it examined had referred fewer than 10 cases each of suspected fraud or abuse to state Medicaid officials in 2015 for further investigation. Two insurers in the program, which serves low-income Americans, didn’t identify a single case all year, the report found. (Terhune, 7/12)
