Pennsylvania Medicaid Archives - Page 19 of 20 - Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania and OB DSH Payments

As part of a three-part series titled “Labor Pains,” the Philadelphia Business Journal has documented the OB/NICU disproportionate share (DSH) payments that Philadelphia-area hospitals have received from Pennsylvania’s Medicaid program since 2007. Many of the recipients are safety-net hospitals, including a number of members of the Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania (SNAP).
Read about the payments and why they were created and gain access to other parts of the “Labor Pains” series via this Philadelphia Business Journal article .

PA Safety Net Admin2012-11-26T06:00:18+00:00November 26th, 2012|Medicaid supplemental payments, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy, Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania|Comments Off

Corbett Hints at No PA Medicaid Expansion

Without explicitly ruling out expansion of the state’s Medicaid program, which is now an optional part of the federal health care reform law, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett has hinted broadly that the state may not be prepared to spend the additional money such an expansion would necessitate.
“I don’t think there’s any way we can absorb this,” the governor told the Pennsylvania Press Club, speaking of the Medicaid expansion that is a major part of the 2010 Affordable Care Act.
Read more about what those costs would be, and the challenges the state would face in expanding its Medicaid program, in this PA Independent article.

PA Safety Net Admin2012-11-23T06:00:34+00:00November 23rd, 2012|Pennsylvania Medicaid policy, Uncategorized|Comments Off

Shift to HealthChoices Hits Bumps in the Road

Pennsylvania’s switch to HealthChoices to serve nearly the entire state Medicaid population is running into short-term obstacles in parts of the state.
Some recipients, for example, failed to choose a participating managed care plan, were assigned to plans, and now are confused about where to go and how to obtain care. In other instances, physicians are still negotiating with those plans or waiting to be credentialed for participation.
Some Pennsylvania safety-net hospitals, because of where they are located and their especially large numbers of Medicaid patients, may experience these problems more than the average hospital.
Read more about the challenges Medicaid recipients are encountering during this transition in this Erie-Times News article .

PA Safety Net Admin2012-11-08T06:00:02+00:00November 8th, 2012|Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|Comments Off

Pennsylvanians Who Lost Medicaid Eligibility Given Path to Restoration

More than 100,000 Pennsylvanians who were dropped from the state’s Medical Assistance rolls in the latter part of 2011 will receive a new opportunity to regain eligibility.
Under an agreement between the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare and lawyers for advocacy groups, 100,000 people who lost their eligibility will receive a letter describing their right of appeal. Those who appeal successfully will be restored to the state’s Medicaid rolls and could have their medical bills resolved for the period during which they were off those rolls.
Read more about why these 100,000 people lost their eligibility and how advocates won this opportunity for restoration in this Philadelphia Inquirer article .

PA Safety Net Admin2012-10-24T09:33:38+00:00October 24th, 2012|Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|Comments Off

PA Relents on New Co-Pays for Selected Medicaid Recipients

The Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare (DPW) has announced that it will not require selected Medical Assistance recipients with incomes 200 percent above the federal poverty level to pay co-payments for Medicaid services.
The new co-pay policy, implemented October 1, affected about 48,000 families and especially targeted children with autism and other disabilities.
Instead of seeking co-payments, DPW intends to seek federal permission to charge insurance premiums to the same patients.
Read more about the controversy and the decision that temporarily ends it in this Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article .

PA Safety Net Admin2012-10-10T06:00:13+00:00October 10th, 2012|Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|Comments Off

Number of Uninsured in PA Unchanged

The number of uninsured Pennsylvanians is not growing. According to data released by the U.S. Census Bureau, about one out of every eight Pennsylvanians under the age of 65 was uninsured in 2010-2011, roughly the same number as in 2008-2009. 16.2 percent under the age of 65 were covered by Medicaid in 2010-2011, the same as 2008-2009 but up sharply over previous years.
Find more data about the uninsured in Pennsylvania, those living below the federal poverty level, and those covered by Medicaid in this Central Penn Business Journal article .

PA Safety Net Admin2012-09-21T06:00:14+00:00September 21st, 2012|Uncategorized|Comments Off

Physician Reluctance Threatens Medicaid Expansion in PA

If Pennsylvania moves ahead and expands Medicaid eligibility as envisioned in the Affordable Care Act, the ability of newly enrolled recipients to obtain medical care may be jeopardized by the reluctance of some physicians to take on more Medicaid patients.
According to a recent article in the journal Health Affairs, 68 percent of the state’s doctors are currently accepting new Medicaid patients. Those who are not cite low reimbursement rates and already-high patient loads among the reasons they are not accepting new Medicaid patients.
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett has not revealed whether he intends to expand Medicaid eligibility in the state and is not expected to do so until after the November election. The mandatory Medicaid expansion, part of the 2010 health care reform law, was ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court, leaving expansion decisions to the individual states.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health says that 94 percent of rural doctors and 84 percent of the state’s urban doctors currently care for Medicaid patients.
Read more about the situation in Pennsylvania today and its implications for Medicaid expansion in this Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article .

PA Safety Net Admin2012-09-11T06:00:28+00:00September 11th, 2012|Health care reform, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|Comments Off

One-Third of PA Docs Reject Medicaid Patients

A study published in the journal Health Affairs found that 32 percent of office-based physicians in Pennsylvania do not accept new Medicaid patients.
This is slightly higher than the nation-wide rate of 30.9 percent of physicians who will not accept new Medicaid patients.
Read more about the study in this Central Penn Business Journal article or find the study itself here, on the Health Affairs web site.

PA Safety Net Admin2012-08-22T06:00:36+00:00August 22nd, 2012|Uncategorized|Comments Off

EHR Use Growing in State Medicaid Program

Roughly one in four Pennsylvania Medical Assistance recipients visited providers last year that used electronic health record (EHR) technology to help manage their health care information.
According to the Department of Public Welfare (DPW), the state has now distributed $130 million in federal EHR incentive payments to 90 hospitals and more than 3000 health care professionals.
Read more about the growing use of EHR technology and the availability of federal funds to support the use of that technology in this Central Penn Business Journal article .

PA Safety Net Admin2012-07-30T06:00:59+00:00July 30th, 2012|Pennsylvania Medicaid policy|Comments Off

Failure to Expand Medicaid Could Hurt PA Hospitals

A decision by Pennsylvania state officials not to expand the state’s Medicaid program as envisioned in the Affordable Care Act would be harmful to the state’s private hospitals – and especially to its safety-net hospitals, according to a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette report.
The law previously required all states to expand their Medicaid programs, but that mandate was struck down last month by the Supreme Court.
The court’s decision has serious implications, Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania (SNAP) president Michael Chirieleison explained in the article.
“When you remove a critical part of the act like this, it leads to a lot of questions and concerns about the viability and credibility of the remaining initiatives.”
State officials have not yet indicated whether Pennsylvania will expand its Medicaid program.
Read the Post-Gazette article here .

PA Safety Net Admin2012-07-25T09:38:41+00:00July 25th, 2012|Health care reform, Pennsylvania Medicaid policy, Safety-Net Association of Pennsylvania|Comments Off

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