Health-Exchange-Alert

The new director of the Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services touted CMS’ commitment to work requirements in Medicaid in a speech Wednesday (Nov. 14), and said the agency is seeing “exciting results.”

In the wake of leadership elections, newly re-elected Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) told reporters that his caucus plans to continue its focus on healthcare in the 116th Congress by using the Democratic majority in the House to press Senate Republicans to take up Democratic health legislation.

House Republicans may not have time during the lame-duck period to revisit a package of bills that would provide employers retroactive relief from a series of Affordable Care Act taxes, but Republicans still hope an end-of-year package in the House could offer relief from some employer taxes, outgoing Ways & Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX) said.

A coalition of GOP attorneys general threw their support behind the Trump administration’s controversial association health plans, telling a federal court they back the administration’s call to dismiss a Democratic-led lawsuit challenging a rule that expanded the scope of the plans.

HHS and CMS should instruct Arkansas to temporarily stop kicking people off Medicaid for failing to comply with the state’s controversial new work requirement program, the federal advisory commission on Medicaid told HHS Secretary Alex Azar in a letter Thursday (Nov. 8).

CMS proposed a rule that aims to better ensure consumers are not dually enrolled in exchange and other public coverage, including Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP and the Basic Health Plan.

Texas District Judge Reed O' Connor is expected to rule any day on the high-profile case over the Affordable Care Act now that the election is over, and some legal experts believe he is likely to overturn as least the law's protections for preexisting conditions but could also move to an injunction that would end implementation of the entire law.

Medicaid expansion could become a reality in Kansas, Maine and Wisconsin after Democrats won the governor’s mansions in those states Tuesday (Nov. 6).

Several Senate Finance members will not return to the committee, as Sens. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) and Dean Heller (R-NV) lost their reelection bids on Tuesday night (Nov. 7), while Florida Democrat Bill Nelson on Wednesday morning called for a recount after initial tallies showed him trailing the state’s outgoing Gov. Rick Scott (R) by less than half a point.