Medicaid eligibility expansion Archives - Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania

Perspective on Medicaid

A new report looks at how Medicaid has affected the health and health care of people throughout the country.
The Commonwealth Fund report “Understanding the Value of Medicaid” examines the impact of the Affordable Care Act’s expansion of Medicaid and notes that the program currently serves 73 million children, seniors, low-income working adults, and people with disabilities.
It also examines how Medicaid expansion has enhanced access to care and even given some people medical benefits comparable to those offered by private insurance.
Finally, the report notes that safety-net hospitals that serve especially large numbers of low-income patients now serve fewer uninsured patients and are better able to invest in new staff, clinics, and equipment, thereby enhancing the quality of care they deliver.
For a closer look at the impact Medicaid has on the American health care system, see this Commonwealth Fund report.

PA Safety Net Admin2016-10-14T06:00:35+00:00October 14th, 2016|Pennsylvania safety-net hospitals|Comments Off

MACPAC Looks at Medicaid DSH

With Medicaid disproportionate share payments (Medicaid DSH) facing future reductions, the agency charged with advising Congress on Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance payment and access matters is considering what changes the federal supplemental Medicaid payment program might need.
At a recent meeting in Washington, D.C., the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission discussed the changing role and purpose of Medicaid DSH as more Americans obtain health insurance through private or public sources. MACPAC commissioners noted that hospital uncompensated care is falling, especially in states that have taken advantage of the Affordable Care Act to expand their Medicaid programs.
A new Medicaid DSH formula set to be used for FY 2018, based more heavily than the current formula on the number of uninsured people in individual states, is expected to result in larger-than-average reductions for hospitals in Medicaid expansion states.
Among the steps commissioners discussed were examining how hospitals use their Medicaid DSH funds; considering how any changes in the distribution of Medicaid DSH funds might affect other parts of states’ health care systems; and the role states should play in determining the allocation of Medicaid DSH funds.
Medicaid DSH funds are a vital source of support to help Pennsylvania safety-net hospitals care for their many uninsured patients.
For a closer look at the issue and MACPAC’s deliberations, see this CQ Roll Call article presented by the Commonwealth Fund.

PA Safety Net Admin2016-09-26T06:00:26+00:00September 26th, 2016|Affordable Care Act, Medicaid supplemental payments, Pennsylvania safety-net hospitals|Comments Off

Safety Net Still Needed, Study Finds

Despite Affordable Care Act policies that have enabled millions of Americans to obtain health insurance, the health care safety net is still needed.
Or so concludes a new report from the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms.
For the report A Tale of Three Cities: How the Affordable Care Act is Changing the Consumer Coverage Experience in 3 Diverse Communities, researchers visited and examined conditions in Tampa, Columbus, and Richmond (Virginia), and among their conclusions was:

We still need a safety net. Safety net programs in existence before the ACA were expected to become less necessary once the ACA coverage expansions took effect. And to some extent that has indeed been the case. But what was deemed affordable under the ACA for those with income too high for Medicaid eligibility is not necessarily perceived to be affordable to the individuals enrolling in the marketplace plans, particularly when health care spending must compete with other pressing household expenses. As a result, safety net providers report that many patients who start the year with coverage return to them later in the year uninsured.

The report also found that

Safety net providers are adapting to the new coverage and health system landscape ushered in by the ACA. However, there’s not yet enough data to know whether coverage has translated to better, more affordable access to health care services.

To learn more about the report and its findings, go here to read a Center on Health Insurance Reforms blog entry on the research and go here to see the report itself.

PA Safety Net Admin2016-04-13T06:00:37+00:00April 13th, 2016|Affordable Care Act, Health care reform|Comments Off

Increased Utilization by New Medicaid Patients Levels Off, Study Finds

Spikes in hospital emergency room and inpatient admissions attributed to patients who have recently obtained Medicaid coverage eventually taper off, according to a new study.
According to the study Increased Service Use Following Medicaid Expansion is Mostly Temporary: Evidence From California’s Low Income Health Program, dramatic increases in ER use and hospitalizations among those newly insured by Medicaid eventually level off and should not especially tax either hospital capacity or state Medicaid budgets.
The study, performed by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, found that after pent-up demand for care among those who previously had limited access to services was satisfied, utilization dropped by more than two-thirds and then remained relatively constant. Outpatient utilization remains generally stable, the study found.
These findings may be a glimpse into Pennsylvania’s future and what its hospitals will face when the state eventually expands its Medicaid program.
For further information about the study and its implications for hospitals and state Medicaid budgets, see this Kaiser Health News report. To see the UCLA study itself, go here.

PA Safety Net Admin2014-10-16T11:53:50+00:00October 16th, 2014|Affordable Care Act, Health care reform, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|Comments Off

PA Seeks Federal OK for Medicaid Expansion

The Corbett administration is asking the federal government to authorize the expansion of the state’s Medicaid program to serve another 500,000 people.
Healthy Pennsylvania, the reform plan unveiled by the Corbett administration in September, calls for expanding eligibility for Medicaid as envisioned in the federal Affordable Care Act but providing coverage to newly eligible individuals through private insurers
Under the plan, most newly eligible recipients would select state-subsidized insurance through the federal health insurance marketplace and receive the same benefits as regular commercial customers.
Healthy Pennsylvania also calls for streamlined benefits packages, enrollee premiums, and a work search requirement.
The formal unveiling of the plan is linked to the state’s application to the federal government for a waiver from selected federal Medicaid requirements. While states routinely request such waivers, each waiver is subject to individual scrutiny and negotiation between the state and federal governments after a period of public comment at the state level.
To learn more about the Healthy Pennsylvania proposal, see this Philadelphia Inquirer article. The administration also has published a description of its proposed application for the federal waiver, including information about how interested parties may comment on the proposal, in the Pennsylvania Bulletin; that notice can be found here. The complete draft waiver application can be found here.

PA Safety Net Admin2013-12-06T10:48:35+00:00December 6th, 2013|Affordable Care Act, Health care reform, Healthy PA, Pennsylvania Bulletin, Pennsylvania Medicaid laws and regulations, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy, Uncategorized|Comments Off

Feds Find Temporary Way to Overcome Medicaid Enrollment Problem

The problems plaguing the beleaguered healthcare.gov web site continue to make it difficult for people to find new health insurance, but a new approach devised by the federal government will make it easier for Medicaid applicants to overcome this problem.
While the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) was having trouble sending completed Medicaid and CHIP applications to the states, it continued sending them basic data from Medicaid and CHIP applications on a weekly basis primarily to help them gauge possible interest in Medicaid enrollment. Now, it is telling states they can use this limited data to enroll such individuals in their Medicaid programs without complete applications.
This process is expected to facilitate enrollment in states that have chosen to expand eligibility for their Medicaid programs. To date, Medicaid enrollment has been one of the brightest aspects of the troubled launch of the Affordable Care Act’s insurance expansion. While Pennsylvania is not expanding its Medicaid program at this time, the process could facilitate the enrollment of so-called woodwork applicants: people who are already eligible for Medicaid and never enrolled but have been drawn to do so by all of the attention the Medicaid expansion and Affordable Care Act have received.
To learn more about the CMS workaround to this problem, read this Kaiser Health News report or read the letter CMS sent to state Medicaid directors describing how this process will work.

PA Safety Net Admin2013-12-05T06:00:58+00:00December 5th, 2013|Affordable Care Act, Health care reform, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|Comments Off

Enough Docs to Go Around?

With nine million people expected to enroll in Medicaid in the coming year, questions are arising about whether there will be enough physicians to serve them.
Across the country there has long been a shortage of physicians, and especially specialists, willing to serve Medicaid patients because of how poorly most state Medicaid programs pay those doctors. Now, with more people than ever expected to become insured by Medicaid, it is not clear whether the existing physician pool will be able to serve them very effectively.
The Affordable Care Act anticipated this problem and included a two-year increase in Medicaid payments to physicians, a move designed to raise Medicaid rates to the same level as those paid by Medicare. But states have been slow to make these payments, which were expected to begin last January, and physicians recognize that this will only be a temporary raise. As a result, fewer physicians than expected have agreed to serve Medicaid patients.
Whether this might pose a problem for Pennsylvania and its safety-net hospitals could depend on whether Governor Tom Corbett’s “Healthy Pennsylvania” proposal is fully implemented and the state expands Medicaid enrollment through the private health insurance market. One of the selling points of the Healthy Pennsylvania proposal has been that working through private insurers, rather than Medicaid managed care organizations or the state itself, should result in better payments for health care providers, thereby making those providers more willing to serve Medicaid patients.
See this New York Times article for a look at these and other questions related to the upcoming Medicaid expansion and the ability of the medical community to meet an unprecedented demand for care.

PA Safety Net Admin2013-12-03T06:00:13+00:00December 3rd, 2013|Affordable Care Act, Healthy PA, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|Comments Off

Enrolling Homeless in Medicaid Poses Challenges, Offers Hope

Enrolling the homeless in Medicaid poses numerous logistical challenges for government, providers, and caregivers but also offers the prospect of improving the lives of those who gain access to care.
Many low-income, homeless adults will be eligible for Medicaid for the first time in states that expand Medicaid eligibility under the Affordable Care Act, but enrolling them in the program can be difficult: they can be hard to find, hard to convince to apply, and hard to enroll because they lack such basics as a mailing address and telephone number.
Yet bringing health care to such individuals could greatly improve their lives and perhaps help address their homelessness by ending the financial stresses that resulted in homelessness or improving their health to the point where they qualify for housing services.
While Pennsylvania still has not expanded its Medicaid program, it now appears to be on a cautious path toward doing so in the near future. If it does, enrolling the homeless in Medicaid also offers the prospect of the state’s safety-net hospitals receiving Medicaid reimbursement for the care they provide to such patients, typically through their emergency departments.
Learn more about the challenges of enrolling the homeless and Medicaid and the benefits of Medicaid eligibility for the homeless in this New York Times article.

PA Safety Net Admin2013-11-26T06:00:25+00:00November 26th, 2013|Affordable Care Act, Health care reform, Healthy PA, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|Comments Off

New Pennsylvania Health Law Project Newsletter

The Pennsylvania Health Law Project has released its latest newsletter.
Features include articles about the state budget and the possible expansion of Medicaid eligibility in Pennsylvania; upcoming changes facing CHIP and PA Fair Care participants; an upcoming study on serving dual eligibles in the state; a new state Medicaid waiver application; and more.
Find the latest Pennsylvania Health Law Project newsletter here.

PA Safety Net Admin2013-08-15T06:00:04+00:00August 15th, 2013|Pennsylvania Medicaid policy, Pennsylvania state budget issues|Comments Off

SNAPShots

SNAPShots

Home / About Us / Advocacy / Why Join? / SNAPShots / Contact Us

Home / About Us / Advocacy / Why Join? / SNAPShots / Contact Us