Health care reform Archives - Page 4 of 13 - Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania

Healthy PA, Medicaid Expansion in Jeopardy?

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett has publicly expressed concern over whether the federal government will approve the state’s attempt to expand its Medicaid program under terms made possible by the federal health care reform law.
Both Corbett and Department of Public Welfare Secretary Beverly Mackereth have suggested that negotiations between the state and federal officials have not been going well.
The state submitted an application for a waiver from selected federal Medicaid requirements in February and has modified its proposal once since then, withdrawing a controversial mandatory job-search requirement. The application is currently undergoing a period of open public comment while state and federal officials negotiate its terms.
Under the Corbett administration’s Healthy Pennsylvania proposal, the state would expand Medicaid eligibility as envisioned under the federal Affordable Care Act but instead of simply opening up its current Medicaid program to the newly eligible, it would underwrite their enrollment in private health insurance plans chosen by those individuals.
Learn more about the latest developments in the state’s attempt to take Medicaid expansion in a decidedly different direction in this Philadelphia Inquirer article.

PA Safety Net Admin2014-04-03T08:54:11+00:00April 3rd, 2014|Affordable Care Act, Health care reform, Healthy PA, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|Comments Off

How Did Healthy PA Change?

In December, the Corbett administration released a draft of its application to the federal government for a waiver from aspects of existing Medicaid law so it could implement its “Healthy Pennsylvania” Medicaid reform and health insurance expansion program.
The public was then invited to comment on the draft application, and in late February, the administration submitted its official Medicaid waiver application to the federal government. That official application included a number of changes from the December draft, reflecting comment submitted to state officials.
What were those changes?
The state has published a brief document, “Healthy Pennsylvania Demonstration Adjustments,” that summarizes those changes. Find that document here.

PA Safety Net Admin2014-03-13T06:00:00+00:00March 13th, 2014|Health care reform, Healthy PA, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|Comments Off

PA Submits Medicaid Plan to Feds

Yesterday the Corbett administration submitted a waiver application to the federal government requesting permission to expand the state’s Medicaid program as described in its “Healthy Pennsylvania” proposal.
The Pennsylvania proposal seeks to vary from the approach taken by most states expanding their Medicaid programs in accordance with the Affordable Care Act by directing the expansion population into private health insurance plans.
A draft waiver application, released in December, was the subject of public hearings throughout the state. The Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania (SNAP) testified at one of those hearings and also submitted detailed written comments about the proposal; both can be found here.
The state’s waiver application, the December draft application, a summary of the application, and the written and oral comments about the proposed application submitted by interested parties can be found here, on the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare’s web site. Learn more about the proposal’s submission to the federal government and where it goes from here in this Ellwood City Ledger article and the reaction of some elected officials to the submission here.
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PA Safety Net Admin2014-02-20T06:00:20+00:00February 20th, 2014|Affordable Care Act, Health care reform, Healthy PA, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy, Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania|Comments Off

PA Labeled “State to Watch” for Medicaid in 2014

The Corbett administration’s “Healthy Pennsylvania” Medicaid expansion proposal has earned the commonwealth recognition from the Washington Post’s “Wonkblog” feature as one of four “states to watch” in 2014.
The Post notes that “How much flexibility the Obama administration grants to Pennsylvania could be influential to the other states, still sitting on the sidelines, waiting to decide whether to expand their own Medicaid programs in the future.”
The other states to watch cited by the Post are Arkansas, approved to use federal Medicaid money to purchase private insurance for its Medicaid population but now in jeopardy of backing out of its own expansion plan; Virginia, where a serious effort is expected to expand the state’s Medicaid program; and Utah, whose governor has declared that doing nothing “is off the table.”
Read the Washington Post article “The four most important states to watch on Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion” here.

PA Safety Net Admin2014-01-30T14:16:11+00:00January 30th, 2014|Affordable Care Act, Health care reform, Healthy PA, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|Comments Off

SNAP Comments on Proposed Medicaid Waiver

The Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania has submitted extensive comments to the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare regarding the state’s application for a section 1115 Medicaid waiver needed to enable the state to expand its Medicaid program through private market insurers.
The highlights of SNAP’s comments include its call for extending retroactive eligibility to those who obtain Medicaid coverage through the private market; easing proposed limits on benefits and penalties for non-payment of premiums; retaining the current supplemental Medicaid payments qualified hospitals receive; and pursuing greater investment in the health care infrastructure of communities with especially high proportions of low-income patients.
See SNAP’s complete written submission here..

PA Safety Net Admin2014-01-14T11:47:11+00:00January 14th, 2014|Health care reform, Healthy PA, Medicaid supplemental payments, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy, Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania|Comments Off

Pennsylvania, the Uninsured, and the Affordable Care Act

How will the Affordable Care Act expand health insurance coverage in Pennsylvania?
How many Pennsylvanians might be eligible for subsidized insurance under the reform law?
These questions and others are addressed in the new Kaiser Family Foundation report “How Will the Uninsured in Pennsylvania Fare Under the Affordable Care Act?” Find that report here.

PA Safety Net Admin2014-01-13T06:00:54+00:00January 13th, 2014|Affordable Care Act, Health care reform|Comments Off

SNAP Testifies About Healthy Pennsylvania

The Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania (SNAP) has weighed in on Governor Corbett’s Healthy Pennsylvania health care reform and insurance expansion proposal.
Testifying at a January 9 public hearing in Harrisburg, SNAP president Michael Chirieleison expressed general support for the Healthy Pennsylvania proposal and addressed four aspects of it that safety-net hospitals would like to see improved:

extension of retroactive eligibility to the Medicaid expansion population;
including inpatient services provided to that same population as “Medicaid days” for the purpose of determining eligibility for supplemental Medicaid payments and other government programs;
reconsideration of proposed benefit limits and suspension of eligibility for non-payment of premiums; and
the addition of a Delivery System Reform Incentive Program or a similar program to support the development of health care infrastructure in communities with large numbers of low-income Pennsylvanians.

Read SNAP’s testimony here.

PA Safety Net Admin2014-01-09T14:14:05+00:00January 9th, 2014|Affordable Care Act, Health care reform, Healthy PA, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|Comments Off

New PA Medicaid Enrollees May be Delayed

A technical problem will result in 25,000 Pennsylvanians who were told they were eligible for Medicaid not being enrolled in the program as quickly as anticipated.
In recent months, approximately 25,000 Pennsylvanians have visited the federal healthcare.gov web site and had their eligibility for Medicaid or the state’s Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) confirmed through the site. Currently, however, the federal government is having trouble transmitting the data it received from those applicants to the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare. As a result, many people who believed they would be enrolled in Medicaid on January 1 are still not eligible for the state and federally medical services.
Read more about the technical problems standing between these low-income Pennsylvanians and Medicaid services in this Pittsburgh Tribune-Review article.

PA Safety Net Admin2014-01-03T06:00:31+00:00January 3rd, 2014|Health care reform|Comments Off

Medicaid Applications Flowing From DC to PA

Pennsylvania is now receiving Medicaid applications from the federal government’s health insurance marketplace website.
Improvements in the healthcare.gov web site have enabled the federal government to begin sending data about Medicaid-eligible applicants to a number of states, including Pennsylvania. Until now, the data had been promised but technical problems prevented the federal government from fulfilling that promise.
Read more about the process of transforming visitors to the healthcare.gov into Pennsylvania Medicaid applicants in this Reading Eagle article.

PA Safety Net Admin2013-12-26T06:00:04+00:00December 26th, 2013|Health care reform|Comments Off

Iowa Approval Good Sign for PA?

Last week the federal government granted Iowa permission to expand its Medicaid program by enabling newly eligible residents to purchase state-approved, subsidized private health insurance.
Pennsylvania currently is planning to make a similar request, and Iowa now is the second state to be permitted to move forward in this manner. Arkansas received permission for a similar approach to Medicaid expansion in September.
While there are differences between the approved Arkansas and Iowa programs and the approach embodied in the Corbett administration’s “Healthy Pennsylvania” proposal, the Iowa approval suggests a continued willingness of the federal government to consider private insurance market alternatives to Medicaid expansion.
Learn more about the approved Iowa plan in this Kaiser Health News report.

PA Safety Net Admin2013-12-17T06:00:07+00:00December 17th, 2013|Affordable Care Act, Health care reform, Healthy PA, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|Comments Off

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