Affordable Care Act Archives - Page 9 of 16 - Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania

A Look at the Corbett Medicaid Proposal

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett’s “Healthy Pennsylvania” proposal calls for an expansion of the state’s Medicaid program as envisioned when the Affordable Care Act was passed three years ago.
Or does it?
Is it Medicaid expansion or is it something entirely different? In the article “Pennsylvania Governor Talks Up Plan To Expand Medicaid His Way,” Kaiser Health News takes a look at how elected officials, advocates, and others are viewing the recent Healthy Pennsylvania proposal. Find the article here.

PA Safety Net Admin2013-10-29T06:00:07+00:00October 29th, 2013|Affordable Care Act, Healthy PA, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|Comments Off

Millions to Fall Into Coverage Gap

More than five million adult Americans will fall into the Affordable Care Act’s Supreme Court-created coverage gap in states that have chosen not to expand their Medicaid programs.
In those 26 states, adults whom the reform law intended to be covered by Medicaid will still earn too much money to qualify for Medicaid yet also will fall below the income level needed to qualify for Affordable Care Act health insurance subsidies.
This gap was created when the Supreme Court made the reform law-mandated Medicaid expansion optional for individual states, and so far, 26 states have chosen not to expand their Medicaid programs. The result, according to a new issue brief from the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, is that 5.2 million low-income adults whom the law intended to enroll in Medicaid will remain uninsured.
More than 280,000 of these people reside in Pennsylvania, which has not yet expanded its Medicaid program. Many will continue to be served by the state’s private safety-net hospitals, which will not be paid for the care they provide.
To learn more about these people and why they will remain uninsured, read the study “The Coverage Gap: Uninsured Poor Adults in States That Do Not Expand Medicaid.” Find the study here, on the web site of the Kaiser Family Foundation.

PA Safety Net Admin2013-10-16T10:08:33+00:00October 16th, 2013|Affordable Care Act, Health care reform, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|Comments Off

CMS Proposes Basic Health Program

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has unveiled a proposal to establish what it is calling a “Basic Health Program” that gives states “the option to establish a health benefits coverage program for low-income individuals who would otherwise be eligible to purchase coverage through the Health Insurance Marketplace.”
The program, established in the Affordable Care Act, is designed for people who do not qualify for Medicaid or CHIP and whose incomes are between 133 percent and 200 percent of the federal poverty level. Legal residents who are non-citizens whose incomes are below 133 percent of the federal poverty level also qualify. The federal government is picking up 95 percent of the cost of this program.
A new proposed regulation addresses who is eligible, how enrollment works, enrollee financial responsibilities, the program’s basic benefits, and more.
Such a program could prove beneficial to many low-income residents of communities served by Pennsylvania’s safety-net hospitals.
Read about the new Basic Health Program in this CMS fact sheet, which also includes a link to the entire proposed regulation.

PA Safety Net Admin2013-09-27T06:00:53+00:00September 27th, 2013|Affordable Care Act|Comments Off

First Peek at PA’s Health Insurance Exchange

A new report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services offers a first look at the health insurance choices to be available to residents of 36 states, including Pennsylvania.
According to the report, premiums before subsidies – not yet released publicly – will average about 16 percent lower than Congressional Budget Office projections.
Across the state, Pennsylvanians will average a choice of 56 insurance plans. The selection varies by region, with 42 choices for residents of the Philadelphia area and 36 for those who reside in Pittsburgh.
The health insurance exchanges are one of the main features of the Affordable Care Act.
Rate information for the individual plans will be released next Tuesday, but monthly premiums for Pennsylvanians reportedly will be lower than the average for the 36 states for which information is available.
For more on the selection of plans, see this Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article. For information about rates, including a chart that shows examples, see this report in the Central Penn Business Journal.

PA Safety Net Admin2013-09-26T06:00:02+00:00September 26th, 2013|Affordable Care Act|Comments Off

ACA Insurance Subsidies for 900,000 Pennsylvanians?

As many as 900,000 Pennsylvanians could be eligible on October 1 for the insurance premium subsidies that are a major part of the Affordable Care Act, according to the advocacy group Families USA.
Learn more about the subsidies, who qualifies for them, and how they work in this WHYY Newsworks article.

PA Safety Net Admin2013-09-24T06:00:22+00:00September 24th, 2013|Affordable Care Act|Comments Off

CMS Finalizes Medicaid DSH Cuts

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued a final Medicaid disproportionate share (Medicaid DSH) regulation that cuts federal spending on Medicaid DSH $500 million in FY 2014 and $600 million in FY 2015.
The Medicaid DSH cuts were mandated by the Affordable Care Act in anticipation of every state expanding its Medicaid program. The reform law’s Medicaid expansion mandate was later made optional by a Supreme Court ruling.
Medicaid DSH cuts will hurt all Pennsylvania safety-net hospitals, and the Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania (SNAP) has conveyed its opposition to the cuts to CMS and also has asked members of Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation to support current legislation to delay the implementation of both Medicaid DSH and Medicare DSH cuts for two years.
While the Affordable Care Act calls for Medicaid DSH cuts through 2020, the new regulation covers only two years. CMS has indicated that it will review its reduction methodology for future years.
Read more about the Medicaid DSH cut, why it was made, the objections to it, and future Medicaid DSH cuts in this CQ Healthbeat article presented by the Commonwealth Fund.

PA Safety Net Admin2013-09-20T06:00:29+00:00September 20th, 2013|Affordable Care Act, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|Comments Off

More Than Better Pay Needed to Lure Docs to Medicaid

Primary care physicians want more than better reimbursement as an inducement to serve more Medicaid patients.
They also want simpler administrative procedures, faster payment, and lower costs associated with treating those patients.
These findings come from a survey of primary care physicians in Washington state.
Recruiting more primary care physicians to serve Medicaid patients is more important than ever because many states will be taking advantage of Affordable Care Act incentives to expand eligibility for their Medicaid programs.
The survey results and more can be found in the article “Physicians May Need More Than Higher Reimbursements to Expand Medicaid Participation: Findings From Washington State,” which was published in the September 2013 edition of the journal Health Affairs. Find that article here.

PA Safety Net Admin2013-09-18T06:00:34+00:00September 18th, 2013|Affordable Care Act, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|Comments Off

Corbett Presents Health Care, Medicaid Proposal

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett has unveiled a new “Healthy PA” proposal that includes the means through which the state would extend Medicaid coverage to approximately 520,000 additional people.
The new Medicaid recipients, instead of enrolling in the state’s traditional Medicaid program, would purchase their health insurance through the state’s health insurance exchange, a creation of the Affordable Care Act.
Funding for the new recipients would come almost entirely from the federal government, also through the Affordable Care Act.
Pennsylvania has long been one of the states that has resisted expanding its Medicaid population – a decision made optional by the Supreme Court after a challenge to the 2010 reform law’s constitutionality.
Read a summary of the Healthy PA plan, and find a link to the plan itself here, on the state’s own web site.

PA Safety Net Admin2013-09-17T06:00:26+00:00September 17th, 2013|Affordable Care Act, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|Comments Off

Reform Will Give Medicaid Population a New Look

Once the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion is implemented, the Medicaid population as a whole will be younger, whiter, healthier, and more male but also more likely to smoke and drink to excess than it is today.
That is the conclusion reached by in a new report published in the Annals of Family Medicine.
This means that spending per recipient may not be as great for new Medicaid recipients as it is for current beneficiaries and that a different patient population may need different approaches to addressing different health challenges.
Learn more about the study and its implications in the article “Potential Adult Medicaid Beneficiaries Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act Compared With Current Adult Medicaid Beneficiaries, which can be found here , on the web site of the journal Annals of Family Medicine.

PA Safety Net Admin2013-09-13T06:00:10+00:00September 13th, 2013|Affordable Care Act, Health care reform|Comments Off

Legislature to Participate in PA Medicaid Expansion Talks

The Corbett administration plans to spend the coming weeks bringing the state legislature into it Medicaid expansion deliberations.
While the administration reportedly has been working to develop a Medicaid expansion program that meets its own requirements for financial responsibility and will pass federal muster, it has been doing so largely without consulting with the state legislature, which has been in recess since early July. While legislative approval is not needed for most aspects of Medicaid expansion, Department of Public Welfare Secretary Bev Mackereth told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that the administration will begin consulting with the legislature.
Medicaid expansion, originally mandated by the Affordable Care Act, was made optional for states by a Supreme Court decisions. Only about half of the states have definitively acted to expand their programs, and while Pennsylvania officials previously expressed strong opposition to expansion, they now appear on course to unveil an expansion proposal this fall.
Read more about the administration’s latest efforts, and its intention to involve the legislature, in this Pittsburgh Post-Gazette report .

PA Safety Net Admin2013-09-11T06:00:19+00:00September 11th, 2013|Affordable Care Act, Health care reform, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|Comments Off

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