PA Delays New Long-Term Care Program
The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services will delay for six months the introduction of its Community HealthChoices program in southeastern Pennsylvania.
The program’s implementation in the five-county Philadelphia area, scheduled to begin on July 1, 2018, has been pushed back to January 1, 2019.
Preparations are currently under way to launch Community HealthChoices in 14 southwestern Pennsylvania counties on January 1, 2018.
Community HealthChoices is a new state program of managed long-term services and supports for Pennsylvanians over the age of 55 who are eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid.
Learn more about the program’s delay in southeastern Pennsylvania in this Philadelphia Inquirer article.
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf has vetoed a bill that included a requirement that certain Medicaid recipients either work or search for work.
Including those who provide services to the more than 2.8 million Pennsylvanians enrolled in the state’s Medicaid program.
Among the possibilities state lawmakers are discussing: tighter rules for participation, greater efficiency, work and work search requirements for able-bodied Medicaid recipients, charging premiums for high-income families for which Medicaid provides coverage for their profoundly disabled children, and a pilot program to test whether a recipient care management program might eliminate medical errors, improve recipient health, and reduce health care costs.
Among the issues addressed in the letter are how the House-passed proposal would detract from the role of Medicaid in fighting the state’s opioid crisis; the proposed reduction in tax credits to help purchase health insurance; the challenge posed by a per capita approach to Medicaid financing; the potential loss of health care jobs; the likelihood of large numbers of Pennsylvanians losing their health insurance and state Medicaid costs rising significantly; and the erosion of consumer protections.
Included in this edition are articles about:
Pennsylvania’s Medicaid program is moving toward greater use of value-based purchasing in its Medicaid behavioral health programs.
The process of determining Medicaid eligibility in Pennsylvania either begins or works its way through the state’s county assistance offices.