Medicaid expansion in Pennsylvania Archives - Page 5 of 7 - Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania

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

Healthy PA Could Affect FQHCs

The Corbett administration’s Healthy Pennsylvania health care reform and Medicaid expansion proposal could steer low-income patients away from the state’s federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) and reduce the payments those facilities receive for much of the care they deliver.
FQHCs have long provided medical care to uninsured people who had no other care options, but if Healthy Pennsylvania is adopted, many of those patients would become eligible for health insurance, whether Medicaid or subsidized by the federal government, and might choose other providers instead or might even find their FQHCs excluded from their new insurer’s provider network.
Learn more about the collision course FHQCs may find themselves on with Healthy PA in this Philadelphia Inquirer article.

PA Safety Net Admin2014-02-12T06:00:21+00:00February 12th, 2014|Healthy PA, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|Comments Off

PA’s Proposed Medicaid Work-Search Requirement

Governor Corbett’s “Healthy Pennsylvania” health care reform and Medicaid expansion proposal includes a component without precedent: a work-search requirement that would require most but not all Medicaid recipients to meet designated job search requirements as a condition for continuing to qualify for Medicaid benefits.
As yet unknown is whether the federal government, which must approve the state’s plan, will permit Pennsylvania to impose such a requirement.
The Philadelphia Inquirer has taken a closer look at the proposed work-search requirement, the rationale behind it, the challenges inherent in administering it, and the perspectives of various groups about the advisability of such a new approach. Read the Inquirer report here.

PA Safety Net Admin2014-02-04T06:00:34+00:00February 4th, 2014|Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|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

CHIP Option Granted Temporary Stay in PA

Children currently receiving Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) benefits in Pennsylvania will have the option of remaining in the program for one more year.
This comes as a result of negotiations between state officials and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Under the Affordable Care Act, children eligible for CHIP benefits who previously did not qualify for Medicaid now do qualify for Medicaid and the federal government expected states to fold these CHIP participants into their Medicaid programs. Pennsylvania officials, however, argued that CHIP participants often had a broader choice of providers than Medicaid recipients and that taking those children out of CHIP would damage the continuity of care they were receiving.
State and federal officials negotiated this issue for months until this week, when federal officials announced that Pennsylvania children in families whose income is between 100 percent and 133 percent of the federal poverty level can choose whether to remain in CHIP or move to the state’s Medicaid program. That choice ends at the close of 2014, when these participants will be enrolled in Medicaid.
CHIP insurers will mail information about this option to the 30,000 affected families.
To learn more about this issue and how it might affect care for low-income children, see this news release from the Pennsylvania Insurance Department.

PA Safety Net Admin2014-01-23T06:00:39+00:00January 23rd, 2014|Affordable Care Act, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|Comments Off

Healthy PA Hearings End

Public hearings on the Corbett administration’s “Healthy Pennsylvania” health care reform and Medicaid insurance expansion proposal ended last week with a hearing in Harrisburg.
Forty people testified at the final hearing, including SNAP president Michael Chirieleison; his oral testimony and SNAP’s more detailed written submission can be found here.
For a summary of the final hearing and a look at what might happen next according to Department of Public Welfare Secretary Beverly Mackereth, see this article on the web site of WITF, Harrisburg’s public television station.

PA Safety Net Admin2014-01-17T06:00:48+00:00January 17th, 2014|Healthy PA|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

Healthy PA Road Show Visits Philadelphia

The process of taking public input on Governor Corbett’s Healthy Pennsylvania Medicaid expansion and health care reform proposal continued last Friday with a hearing in Philadelphia.
Among those who testified before Department of Public Welfare Secretary Beverly Mackereth and other state officials were representatives of Project Home, the Cover the Commonwealth Campaign, the Disability Rights Network of Pennsylvania, the Health Federation of Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania Health Care Association, Jefferson Health System, and Mercy Health System, the newest member of the Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania (SNAP).
Read more about the hearing and the testimony offered in this Philadelphia Business Journal report.
The hearing was the third of six schedule sessions. Hearings already have been held in Erie and Pittsburgh; a hearing is scheduled for today, January 6, in Scranton; and hearings also will be held on January 7 in Altoona and January 9 in Harrisburg. SNAP president Michael Chirieleison will testify in Harrisburg and SNAP also will submit extensive written comments about the Healthy Pennsylvania proposal.

PA Safety Net Admin2014-01-06T06:00:49+00:00January 6th, 2014|Healthy PA, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy, Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania|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

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