Medicaid

Democratic governors on Tuesday blasted the Department of Justice’s reversal in the high-profile challenge to the Affordable Care Act and pledged to do whatever possible to shield residents from the potential loss of insurance coverage or consumer protections, in a call set up by the Democratic Governors Association.

Less than 24 hours after the Department of Justice asked a federal court to throw out the entire Affordable Care Act, House Democrats introduced sweeping legislation to bolster the Obama-era health care law and rallied to protect the law as the case moves through the appeals system.

The Louisiana Department of Health picked Gilead subsidiary Asegua Therapeutics to fulfill its first-in-the nation subscription model to provide hepatitis C drugs to state Medicaid and corrections populations, the department announced Tuesday (March 26).

The Department of Justice on Monday (March 25) told the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals that it now agrees with District Judge Reed O ‘Connor’s Dec. 14 decision that the ACA’s individual mandate is no longer valid and therefore the entire Affordable Care Act, which included major reforms to the insurance market and Medicaid and established the biosimilars market, should be thrown out.

The Maryland legislature passed a measure that would allow uninsured individuals to apply for health coverage on their tax returns, and, if the bill is signed by the governor, the state would become the first to enact such legislation.

The HHS Office of Inspector General is asking for an additional $2 million in fiscal 2020 to beef up the state Medicaid Fraud Control Units, and on Thursday the OIG finalized a regulatory update to the program that was initially proposed in 2016.

The Kansas House of Representatives on Thursday (March 21) approved a modified version of Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s plan to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.

The Idaho legislature is mulling proposals to add work requirements and other restrictions to the state’s Medicaid expansion plan that was approved by voters in November and has yet to take effect.

Medicaid work requirements will increase uncompensated-care costs, hurt hospitals’ operating margins and disproportionately harm rural hospitals, according to a Commonwealth Fund study.