Minn. Cracks Down On Enrollment Contractors
Minnesota officials announced that they are cutting grants to more than a dozen groups that enlisted last year to help with health insurance enrollment. Meanwhile, groups in Connecticut and Illinois have filed discrimination complaints charging that the federal government did not properly alert some immigrant groups before it canceled their health premium subsidies.
Minneapolis Star-Tribune: After A Rocky Year, MNsure Overhauls Consumer Outreach Grants
Minnesota’s online insurance exchange, MNsure, has cut more than a dozen agencies from its roster of enrollment subcontractors after concluding that the $4.7 million outreach effort lacked proper oversight in 2014 and needed an overhaul for its second year. The cuts include last year's biggest contractor -- Minnesota Community Action Partnership -- a coalition that included Community Action of Minneapolis, a nonprofit that shut down last month when it came under investigation for possible misuse of public funds (Kennedy, 10/2).
WHYY: Philly Immigrant Group Joins In Discrimination Complaint Against HHS Over Language Hurdle
A Philadelphia group that's been helping immigrants sign up for coverage through the Affordable Care Act's new online marketplace has filed a complaint in hopes of blocking the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from canceling coverage due to "data-matching" issues. The Southeast Asian Mutual Assistance Associations Coalition, Inc. alleges that HHS failed to properly notify those whose primary language isn't English that they could lose their health coverage Sept. 30 if they didn't provide additional proof that they're in the U.S. legally (Gordon, 10/2).
Modern Healthcare: Immigrants With Canceled Exchange Plans File Discrimination Complaints Against HHS
A pair of complaints alleging that HHS discriminated against federal exchange enrollees who aren't proficient in English or Spanish have been filed with the agency's Office of Civil Rights. ... Last month, HHS announced that 115,000 individuals who had failed to resolve problems with their applications related to immigration status would have their plans canceled at the end of September. But letters notifying individuals about the problems were sent only in English and Spanish. ... The complaints were filed by the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) and the Southeast Asian Mutual Assistance Associations Coalition (SEAMAAC) in Philadelphia on behalf of their clients. They are being represented by the National Immigration Law Center and the law firm Holland & Knight (Demko, 10/2).
And on the issue of Medicaid expansion --
The Washington Post: McAuliffe Aide Suggested Job For Senator’s Daughter If He Remained In His Seat
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s chief of staff left a voice-mail message for a Democrat who was on the verge of quitting the General Assembly in June, saying that the senator’s daughter might get a top state job if he stayed to support the governor’s push to expand Medicaid, according to descriptions from three people who heard the recording. Then-Sen. Phillip P. Puckett wound up resigning, flipping control of the chamber to Republicans and thwarting McAuliffe’s signature goal of expanding health coverage under the Affordable Care Act (Vozzella, 10/2).
AL.com: Parker Griffith's Plan: Expanding Medicaid And Maybe Gambling, Education Lottery, Cutting Or Ending Capital Gains Tax
Democrat Parker Griffith released today his "Plan for Alabama's Future" a political blueprint of what he wants to do if elected governor. At the heart of the plan, not surprisingly, are the central themes of his campaign- expanding Medicaid using billions of dollars from the Affordable Care Act, support for a lottery for education and the creation of 130,000 new jobs, many of them coming from the expansion of Medicaid (Dean, 10/2).
