Medicaid

Governors Charlie Baker (R-MA), Steve Bullock (D-MT), Bill Haslam (R-TN), Gary Herbert (R-UT) and John Hickenlooper (D-CO) will testify at the second of two planned Senate health committee hearings on stabilizing the individual insurance market slated for early September, the committee announced Wednesday (Aug. 24).

Republican health reform efforts may have stalled but Democrats are moving forward on a number of proposals that aim to build on the existing infrastructure in a move toward universal coverage and Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders (VT) will soon introduce legislation that would expand Medicare to all Americans.

States will freeze enrollment in the Children's Health Insurance Program before they run out of money, First Focus President Bruce Lesley warns. Most states could manage to keep CHIP running briefly past the Oct. 1 expiration of federal funding, but Lesley says there will be disruptions to the program before states exhaust that funding.

The American Hospital Association placed the extension of the moratorium on Medicaid disproportionate share hospital payment cuts on the list of what it considers must-pass legislation this year, but a spokesperson for the House Energy & Commerce Committee told Inside Health Policy there have not been discussions about the DSH cuts beyond what was included in the House-passed American Health Care Act.

States have started preparing in case federal funds for the Children's Health Insurance Program run out, the National Academy for State Health Policy said, and CMS recently discussed CHIP contingency plans with state officials, though states received assurances of bipartisan support for CHIP by Senate Finance Chair Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and ranking Democrat Ron Wyden (OR).

Texas' pending Medicaid family planning demonstration waiver application that would exempt the state from Medicaid's “freedom of choice” provision has so far drawn close to 19,000 public comments on CMS' website and letters to CMS Administrator Seema Verma from leading House and Senate Democrats that urge her to deny the waiver.

Molina Health interim CEO Joe White told investors that a failure to invest in new business capabilities and to absorb Affordable Care Act growth as well as non-competitive provider contracts led to its disappointing second quarter performance as he announced exits from two exchanges amid a company restructuring.

Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) went to the White House Monday (July 31) to discuss with HHS Secretary Tom Price and a group of governors legislation he wrote with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) that would block grant funding for all ACA spending based on a new approach that moves towards equal funding across the states.

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) Thursday night pledged his chamber would go to conference on health reform legislation if the Senate passes a skinny ACA repeal bill, but attached a major caveat: Whatever agreement is hammered out by the two chambers must be voted on first by the Senate.