Medicaid

The number of Arkansas Medicaid beneficiaries who lost coverage as a result of the state’s newly enacted work requirements grew to more than 18,000 last month, according to data released by the state Tuesday (Jan. 15).

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) will discuss a bill on pharmacy benefit manager transparency this session with his committee, a spokesman for the senator told Inside Health Policy.

As two new states prepare to implement Medicaid work requirements this spring, opponents of the policy issued a report Thursday (Jan. 10) arguing that there is no way for any state to integrate work requirements into Medicaid without causing serious unintended consequences.

Newly elected governors in states across the country are using their first days in office to push forward with Medicaid expansion and other significant changes to their states’ Medicaid programs.

The House on Tuesday (Jan. 8) approved three-month funding extensions for two Medicaid programs aimed at helping people receive care in their homes and communities: the Money Follows the Person demonstration, and spousal-impoverishment protections for people receiving home- and community-based services.

CMS Administrator Seema Verma announced six new staff changes at CMS, including a new acting Medicaid director and two new senior medical advisers.

As 2019 opens with a divided Congress and a partially closed federal government, the debates about what Medicaid should cover and who it should be for show no signs of letting up.

CMS’ Medicaid chief, an outspoken critic of Medicaid expansion, is leaving the agency after less than three months on the job.

Medicare beneficiaries start 2019 with a new Medicare Advantage open enrollment period, lobbyists and stakeholders continue to pore over the administration’s revamp of the Accountable Care Organization program unveiled late in December and others are waiting on interoperability and electronic health records rules that at the start the new year are still under White House Review.