Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
South Dakota Lawmakers Say No To Expanding Medicaid
AP: SD Senate Rejects Medicaid Expansion, Leaving It To Election
A proposal to expand Medicaid health coverage eligibility was defeated in the South Dakota Senate Tuesday, leaving the decision to voters in the November election. Republican Sen. Wayne Steinhauer had brought a proposal to the Legislature to make Medicaid, a federal-state health insurance program for low-income people, available to people who live below 133% of the federal poverty level. That is currently about $17,000 annually for an individual or $35,000 for a family of four. (2/15)
AP: NC GOP: Medicaid Expansion Vote Possible Later This Year
An up-or-down vote on broad Medicaid expansion in North Carolina could occur before the November elections, key Republican legislators said on Tuesday. A joint House-Senate panel created in the current budget law and tasked with studying health care access and possible expansion holds its first meeting on Friday. The committee could submit proposed legislation to the full General Assembly before this year’s session ends, the budget law says. (2/15)
In other Medicaid news —
Fresh Take Florida: Florida Failed To Pay Thousands Of Claims For The Neediest Children. A Tech Glitch Was Blamed.
Florida failed for nearly three months to pay tens of thousands of health care claims for the state's sickest and neediest children due to software glitches blamed on the corporate merger of its two largest payment vendors, officials and executives said. Families with critically ill children who relied on Medicaid-paid health providers were stranded in some cases. A father in Lake Worth was forced to cut back his contractor work to remain home and care for his son when payments stopped. A mother in Ocala said the company that helped care for her 15-year-old disabled son temporarily shut down because of the payment problems. (Bausch, 2/15)
Georgia Health News: House Panel Endorses More Transparency In Health Plans’ Data
A House committee Tuesday approved a bill that would require more public disclosure about Georgia health plans serving Medicaid patients and state employees and teachers. House Bill 1276, if it becomes law, would require the main state health agency to post reports showing how many primary care providers these insurance plans offer in a county, along with data on the insurers’ hospital costs and prescription drug spending. Members of the House Health and Human Services Committee did not voice any objections to the measure, which now goes to the Rules Committee in that chamber. (Miller and Grapevine, 2/15)
In Medicare news —
Roll Call: Patients' Groups, Progressives Square Off Over Medicare Alzheimer's Decision
Advocates on both sides of a debate over dramatically restricting Medicare’s coverage of an expensive and controversial Alzheimer’s treatment are waging competing campaigns to influence a final decision in April. The dispute also raises larger questions about whether lawmakers and regulators will revisit the fast-track pathway under which the drug was approved, with the issue even entangling Robert Califf’s embattled nomination to lead the Food and Drug Administration. (Clason, 2/15)
KHN: Inside The Tactical Tug Of War Over The Controversial Alzheimer’s Drug
The drug industry, patient advocates, and congressional Republicans have all attacked federal officials’ decision to decline routine Medicare coverage for a controversial Alzheimer’s drug. They’ve gone as far as to accuse them of tacit racism, ageism, and discrimination against the disabled — and hinted at a lawsuit — over the decision to pay only for patients taking the drug in a clinical trial. The drug, Aduhelm, with a listed price tag of $28,500 a year, has had few takers in the medical world. Brain doctors are leery of administering the intravenous drug because it appears dangerous and largely ineffective. Many of the nation’s most prestigious hospitals — such as the Cleveland Clinic, Johns Hopkins Hospital, and Massachusetts General in Boston — have declined to offer it to patients. (Allen, 2/16)
