Pennsylvania Medicaid Archives - Page 17 of 22 - Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania

Uncompensated Care Down in Medicaid Expansion States

Hospitals in states that chose to take advantage of the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion option are providing less charity care than hospitals in states that have not expanded their Medicaid programs.
So reports the Colorado Hospital Association after its survey of 465 hospitals in 30 states.
According to the survey, hospitals’ proportion of Medicaid patients increased in states that expanded their Medicaid programs and did not increase in states that did not expand their Medicaid program and uncompensated care fell in states that expanded their Medicaid programs but did not in other states.
Addressing the extent of these changes, the survey found that

The changes seen here are not only distinct, but also substantial. The Medicaid proportion of total charges increased over three percentage points to 18.8 percent in 2014 from 15.3 percent in 2013, representing a 29 percent growth in the volume of Medicaid charges. When compared to the first quarter of 2013, there was a 30 percent drop in average charity care per hospital across expansion states, to $1.9 million from $2.8 million. Similarly, total self-pay charges declined 25 percent in expansion states, bringing its proportion of total charges down to 3.1 percent from 4.7 percent. In contrast, the proportion of Medicare volume shows little variation through first quarter 2014.

Pennsylvania has not yet expanded its Medicaid program but is currently negotiating the terms of doing so with the federal government.
Find the complete Colorado Hospital Association report here.

PA Safety Net Admin2014-06-06T06:00:25+00:00June 6th, 2014|Affordable Care Act, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|Comments Off

No Observation Rate Yet for PA Medicaid

The Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare has published a notice in the Pennsylvania Bulletin continuing its current payment methodology under the state’s Medicaid program but noting that it still has not developed an observation rate for the program.
Last year the state indicated that it wanted to establish such an observation rate, but it has not yet done so. The new notice states that

The Department also announced its intent to establish an observation rate for hospital cases for which an inpatient admission is not medically necessary, but medical observation of a patient is required. The Department received multiple public comments concerning an intended observation rate. At this time, the Department plans to develop a payment policy and rates for observation services and will provide an opportunity for public comment in a future notice of intent.

At the time the state expressed an interest in developing an observation rate, the Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania wrote to the Department of Public Welfare expressing support for the concept. Read SNAP’s letter here.
Find the entire Pennsylvania Bulletin notice here.

PA Safety Net Admin2014-05-19T06:00:51+00:00May 19th, 2014|Pennsylvania Bulletin, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|Comments Off

Lack of Transportation Benefit in PA Medicaid Proposal Hurts, Critics Say

Pennsylvania’s application for a waiver from selected federal Medicaid requirements includes a request for permission to eliminate transportation services for Medicaid recipients.
And that hurts, some critics say.
The private insurance plans in which newly eligible Medicaid recipients would enroll under the state’s proposed Medicaid expansion plan would not be required to offer medical transportation to low-income recipients, and one critic of the state’s proposal told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that “Entitlement to health services is meaningless if you can’t access it.”
Read more about medical transportation, other so-called wraparound benefits, and how the Medicaid expansion component of the state’s Healthy Pennsylvania plan treats them in this Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article.

PA Safety Net Admin2014-04-07T11:50:30+00:00April 7th, 2014|Healthy PA, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|Comments Off

Providers Must Re-enroll to Serve PA Medicaid Population

All health care providers that serve Pennsylvania’s Medicaid population must re-enroll with the state if they wish to continue doing so.
The requirement, established under the Affordable Care Act, applies to providers that participate in both the state’s Medicaid managed care and fee-for-service programs.
Additional information can be found about the requirement and how to re-enroll in this Medical Assistance Bulletin notice.

PA Safety Net Admin2014-03-14T06:00:34+00:00March 14th, 2014|Medical Assistance Bulletin, Pennsylvania Medicaid laws and regulations, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|Comments Off

First Round of Data on PA Health Insurance Sign-Ups

123,681 Pennsylvanians signed up for health insurance through the federally facilitated marketplace between October 1 and February 1, according to a new report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Among Pennsylvanians who enrolled in new health insurance plans, 79 percent were eligible for financial assistance with their premiums and 56 percent are female while 44 percent are male.
Among those who enrolled in insurance plans through the marketplace, 26 percent are between the ages of 18 and 34; 15 percent are between the ages of 35 and 44; 22 percent are between 45 and 54; and 36 percent are between 55 and 64.
In all, the marketplace evaluated 286,926 Pennsylvanians for eligibility for subsidized insurance, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). 29,365 were found eligible for Medicaid or CHIP.
Learn more about the first round of Pennsylvanians who signed up for health insurance, including the types of plans they selected and more, in this Department of Health and Human Services report.

PA Safety Net Admin2014-02-14T06:00:26+00:00February 14th, 2014|Affordable Care Act|Comments Off

PA to Submit Healthy Pennsylvania Application Soon

Pennsylvania will submit its “Healthy Pennsylvania” Medicaid expansion waiver application to the federal government in about two weeks, Governor Tom Corbett told a central Pennsylvania public radio station last week.
Once the state submits that application, according to the Harrisburg Patriot-News, “…the process should go quickly, he [Corbett] said, since the details have been worked out through ‘constant negotiations’ with federal officials at the Department of Health and Human Services.”
Read more about Governor Corbett’s radio appearance and his thoughts on Healthy Pennsylvania and Medicaid expansion in this Harrisburg Patriot-News report.

PA Safety Net Admin2014-02-10T06:00:26+00:00February 10th, 2014|Healthy PA, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|Comments Off

Corbett Budget Proposes Mixed Bag for Safety-Net Hospitals

Yesterday Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett unveiled his proposed FY 2015 budget – a mixed bag for the state’s safety-net hospitals.
The budget proposes increased spending for Medicaid services, compensates for the loss of federal Medicaid funding expected when the state’s Medicaid matching rate declines later this year, and proposes new funding to help develop clinics and encourage medical professionals to work in rural and underserved parts of Pennsylvania.
On the other hand, the budget proposes slight reductions in selected supplemental payments that are important to safety-net hospitals, counts on significant savings derived through the Healthy Pennsylvania program that has not yet been approved by the federal government, and assumes that the state will prevail in its appeal of an arbitration ruling that would severely reduce the funding the state uses to make tobacco uncompensated care payments to qualified hospitals.
SNAP has prepared a detailed summary of the budget proposal that addresses the aspects of the budget that are most important to safety-net hospitals. Interested parties may request a copy by hitting the “contact us” link in the upper right-hand corner of this screen.

PA Safety Net Admin2014-02-05T10:53:42+00:00February 5th, 2014|Healthy PA, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|Comments Off

Changes in Medicaid Fee Schedule

The Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare has announced changes in its Medical Assistance fee schedule. Those changes, published in the January 18 edition of the Pennsylvania Bulletin, can be found here.

PA Safety Net Admin2014-01-21T06:00:39+00:00January 21st, 2014|Pennsylvania Bulletin, Pennsylvania Medicaid laws and regulations, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|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

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

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