Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Virginia Lawmakers Lay Groundwork For Medicaid Expansion With Work Requirements Vote
The Washington Post: Virginia House Passes Medicaid Work Requirements At Session Midpoint
Virginia’s House of Delegates passed a bill Tuesday to impose work requirements on Medicaid recipients, laying the groundwork for potential expansion of the health-care program as the legislature reached the halfway point of its 60-day session. The measure is one of a flurry of bills taken up in the Capitol on a day known as “crossover,” the deadline for legislation to make it out of one chamber and move to the other. Any bills left behind are dead for the year, with one exception: the two-year state spending plan. Budget bills come out of House and Senate money committees Sunday, arriving on the floor next week. (Vozzella, 2/13)
Richmond Times-Dispatch: Senate Votes To Expand Some Medicaid Services With No Way To Pay For Them
The chamber voted unanimously Tuesday to approve Senate Bill 915, proposed by Sen. Siobhan Dunnavant, R-Henrico, which would expand Medicaid eligibility for people earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level — $16,753 a year for a single person — if they suffer from serious mental health or substance disorders or chronic diseases. ... But the dramatically revised bill wouldn’t take effect unless the two-year budget ultimately approved by the General Assembly includes money to pay for it. (Martz, 2/13)
Columbus Dispatch: Ohio Wants To Require Those On Medicaid To Get A Job
At the direction of the Republican-controlled legislature, Gov. John Kasich’s administration is preparing to ask federal regulators to OK adding a work requirement for adults who gained coverage under the Affordable Care Act’s expansion of Medicaid, which is tax-funded insurance for the poor and disabled. The state would exempt those who are over age 55, in school or training for a job, in treatment for drug or alcohol addiction or have intensive health-care needs or serious mental illness. (Candisky, 2/14)
And in other Medicaid news —
The Associated Press: West Virginia Gets Medicaid OK To Treat Babies In Drug Rehab
West Virginia, which has the nation's highest rate of babies born dependent on drugs, will now offer Medicaid coverage to treat those babies. The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has approved treatment services in the state for newborns enduring the torment of drug withdrawal, the state Department of Health and Human Resources said in a news release Tuesday. (2/13)
Chicago Tribune: 'It's A Travesty:' Roseland Hospital CEO Sees Death Sentence In Funding Cut
Two South Side hospitals fear they may have to shut or slash services as a result of changes to how the state allocates Medicaid funding. Roseland Community Hospital and South Shore Hospital say they face a potentially fatal funding squeeze in the long-awaited redesign of a program state lawmakers are expected to vote on soon. Meanwhile, many other safety-net hospitals in poor communities that serve large numbers of Medicaid patients are breathing sighs of relief that their funding won’t take the hits they feared. (Elejalde-Ruiz, 2/13)
KCUR: She Struggled Against Cancer, And To Get Insurance — Now She's Pushing For Kansas Medicaid Expansion
Amy Houston got the bad news — a diagnosis of Hodgkin Lymphoma — in 2009. ...Uninsured and out of money, Houston, a single mother of four, said she decided to skip further treatment until she could afford it. She and her children were left obsessing about her symptoms and how they might be signaling the progression of the disease. ...She’ll testify today at a Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee hearing on a bill to expand eligibility for KanCare, Kansas’ privatized Medicaid program. (McLean, 2/13)
