Affordable Care Act Archives - Page 11 of 16 - Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania

Feds Take Over PA Fair Care

Pennsylvania has turned over to the federal government control of its health insurance program for people with pre-existing medical conditions.
PA Fair Care currently insures about 7000 Pennsylvanians whose pre-existing conditions make the cost of private health insurance prohibitive. Created under the Affordable Care Act, the program was intended to serve as a bridge to the availability of insurance through health insurance exchanges in 2014.
But when federal funding for the program fell short for the current fiscal year and the state was faced with the prospect of absorbing some of its costs, Pennsylvania exercised its option to turn PA Fair Care over to the federal government.
Read more about PA Fair Care and why the federal government will now run it in this Kaiser Health News article .

PA Safety Net Admin2013-07-05T06:00:42+00:00July 5th, 2013|Uncategorized|Comments Off

Primary Docs Can Get Medicaid Pay Raise

The Affordable Care Act calls for selected primary care providers to receive an increase in their Medicaid fees during calendar years 2013 and 2014.
The pay raise, which seeks to bring Medicaid fees to the same level as Medicare rates, is intended to induce more primary care providers to serve Medicaid patients in anticipation of the increase in Medicaid enrollment expected when the Affordable Care Act takes full effect.
Eligible providers must complete a form attesting to their eligibility for the pay raise and the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare has issued the form and instructions for completing it. Find both the form and the instructions here .

PA Safety Net Admin2013-06-27T06:00:15+00:00June 27th, 2013|Pennsylvania Medicaid laws and regulations, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|Comments Off

PA Senate to Move on Medicaid Expansion

Pennsylvania state Senate leaders plan to bring a vote to expand the state’s Medicaid program to the Senate floor this week.
The bill, according to Senate leaders, will include conditions that will make it more palatable to more conservative Republicans and the governor. Democrats are already thought to support Medicaid expansion.
While the bill is considered likely to enjoy solid support in the Senate, it is not clear whether the state House is as interested in Medicaid expansion as envisioned under the federal Affordable Care Act.
The Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania (SNAP) supports Medicaid expansion in the state.
Read more about the Senate bill, who is behind it, and what the bill says in this Centre Daily Times article .

PA Safety Net Admin2013-06-24T06:00:32+00:00June 24th, 2013|Health care reform, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy, Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania|Comments Off

Administration Identifies Medicaid Expansion Obstacles

Corbett administration officials took advantage of a recent public briefing on Medicaid expansion to explain that the governor wants to expand the state’s Medicaid program but is seeking flexibility in how to do so that the Obama administration will not provide.
In particular, the administration wants to establish work requirements for new recipients, adjust benefits, and carve out a greater role for private health insurers.
The administration continues to negotiate these and other Medicaid expansion-related issues with federal officials.
Read more about the issues that the Corbett administration is attempting to address and the response of advocates of Medicaid expansion in this Harrisburg Patriot-News article .

PA Safety Net Admin2013-06-17T06:00:07+00:00June 17th, 2013|Health care reform, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|Comments Off

A Graphic Look at Medicaid Expansion

The Stateline web site features a number of new, excellent graphs that depict various aspects of Affordable Care Act-inspired Medicaid expansion.
The graphs show where expansion is moving forward, where it has been rejected, and where decisions have yet to be made; where Americans get their health insurance today; who might be eligible for Medicaid; and the cost of Medicaid expansion.
Find the graphs here , on the Stateline web site.

PA Safety Net Admin2013-06-12T06:00:12+00:00June 12th, 2013|Health care reform|Comments Off

Medicaid Pay Raise Isn’t Reaching Docs

The Affordable Care Act-mandated fee increase for primary care physicians serving Medicaid patients is not reaching those physicians.
Or so reports the Washington Post, which writes that only a few states are paying primary care providers more money to serve Medicaid patients.
The pay raise is considered an important tool to help encourage more primary care providers to serve Medicaid patients at a time when Medicaid enrollment is expected to increase significantly because of the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion provisions. Under the health reform law, Medicaid payments for primary care services, traditionally very low, are to be raised to the same level as Medicare primary care payments for two years – calendar years 2013 and 2014.
Five months into 2013, however, only Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, and Michigan are making the higher payments.
Pennsylvania is among the states still not making the enhanced Medicaid payments, but state officials have promised further information about their plans in the coming days.
Learn more about the thinking behind the pay raise and why most states still are not paying it in this Washington Post article.

PA Safety Net Admin2013-05-21T06:00:54+00:00May 21st, 2013|Health care reform, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|Comments Off

PA Seeks Fair Share for Fair Care

Pennsylvania is asking the federal government to continue full funding of the health insurance program for hard-to-insure people created under the Affordable Care Act.
PA Fair Care currently provides health insurance for 6900 Pennsylvanians with medical conditions that usually make health insurance too expensive for them to purchase. The federal government allocated $5 billion for the program, but even though nation-wide enrollment is less than one-third of what the Obama administration estimated, the program has expended most of its initial appropriation and the federal government has asked states to stop enrolling new members and shift existing members into the federal version of the program or risk liability for costs the federal government will no longer subsidize.
Read more about PA Fair Care, why the program is in trouble, and what the state and federal government are trying to do about it in this Pittsburgh Post-Gazette report .

PA Safety Net Admin2013-05-20T06:00:44+00:00May 20th, 2013|Uncategorized|Comments Off

DPW Secretary: Medicaid Expansion No Sooner Than 2015

Even if Pennsylvania decides to go ahead and expand its Medicaid program, such expansion is unlikely before January of 2015, according to the state official who would be responsible for leading that expansion.
State officials still have not decided whether the state will expand its program as envisioned under the Affordable Care Act, but even if they decide to expand, Department of Public Welfare acting secretary Beverly Mackereth has indicated that the work involved in such an undertaking makes it unlikely that expansion could begin until January of 2015.
Currently, state officials are negotiating possible terms of expansion with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. A decision on expansion most likely depends on the outcome of those negotiations.
Read more about Secretary Mackereth’s comments about a possible expansion time-frame and the issues that still need to be addressed in this Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article.

PA Safety Net Admin2013-05-15T06:00:22+00:00May 15th, 2013|Health care reform, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|Comments Off

Congressman Calls for Delay on DSH Cuts

Cuts in Medicare DSH and Medicaid DSH payments, scheduled to be take effect beginning in FY 2014, would be delayed for two years under a new bill proposed in Congress.
Under the DSH Reduction Relief Act of 2013, Affordable Care Act-mandated cuts in Medicare disproportionate share payments (Medicare DSH) and Medicaid disproportionate share payments (Medicaid DSH) would not begin until FY 2016, instead of in FY 2014, as the reform law requires.
The bill was proposed by Representative John Lewis (D-GA).
Read more about The DSH Reduction Relief Act in this article from Becker’s Hospital Review.

PA Safety Net Admin2013-05-13T09:36:10+00:00May 13th, 2013|Health care reform|Comments Off

Will Medicaid Coverage Mean Access?

With many states preparing to expand their Medicaid programs and enroll unprecedented numbers of new people, it is not clear whether Medicaid coverage will lead to access to care.
That concern arises in the wake of a survey that found that only 43 percent of physicians accept Medicaid patients. Other providers, moreover, may not be up to filling the gap: the same survey found that only 20 percent of physician assistants and nurse practitioners serve Medicaid patients.
Thus, while more people than ever will have health insurance once the Medicaid expansion component of the Affordable Care Act takes effect, it is not clear whether those who find themselves newly insured will have reasonable access to medical services.
While the Affordable Care Act attempts to anticipate this challenge by raising the traditionally low fees that Medicare pays primary care physicians to the same level as those paid by Medicare for the next two years, it is not clear whether this new policy is working and if will have a lasting impact after the two-year experiment ends.
This could become a major challenge for Pennsylvania’s safety-net hospitals if the state eventually chooses to expand its Medicaid program. To date, the state has chosen not to expand the program but has been discussing the possibility of doing so with federal officials. The Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania (SNAP) supports Medicaid expansion in the state.
Read more about the survey and its implications in this Healthcare Finance News report .

PA Safety Net Admin2013-05-08T06:00:00+00:00May 8th, 2013|Pennsylvania Medicaid policy, Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania|Comments Off

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