Medicaid

Officials with Families USA wrote in a Health Affairs blog Thursday (Jan. 24) that CMS needs to rewrite the objective of Medicaid to successfully respond to legal challenges to Medicaid work requirements, as advocates for those suing over the requirements say the coverage losses in Arkansas, and expected losses in Kentucky, show that the waivers do not further the point of the program.

Federal Medicaid advisers voted Thursday (Jan. 24) to recommend that Congress alter scheduled payment cuts to disproportionate-share hospitals so the cuts are phased in more gradually and redistributed among states based upon their percentage of low-income residents.

The president, HHS secretary and other administration officials touted the administration’s efforts to lower drug prices at a White House meeting Wednesday (Jan. 23) where the president talked of his amazement upon recently learning that generics work as well as the brands they copy.

The judge overseeing the federal lawsuit challenging Kentucky’s plan to implement Medicaid work requirements denied a request from the Department of Justice to put the case indefinitely on hold during the partial government shutdown.

House Energy & Commerce Chair Frank Pallone (D-NJ) says his committee will be looking into the Medicaid work requirement waivers, which the Trump administration has approved for eight states, but E&C oversight subcommittee Chair Diana DeGette (D-CO) says they aren’t at the top of her agenda.

Medicaid advocates are asking the federal judge who has already blocked Kentucky’s work requirement program from going into effect once to do so again, as the latest version of the lawsuit says the version of Kentucky HEALTH that was reapproved by CMS in November shares the same flaws as the prior version.

A Utah lawmaker is pushing to attach work requirements to the state’s newly approved Medicaid expansion, and if the full legislature agrees, the proposal could delay the implementation of that expansion.

Senate Finance Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-IA) on Wednesday (Jan. 9) said he expects to spend time looking at Medicare and Medicaid waste, fraud and abuse now that he has resumed the chairmanship, along with health care anti-trust issues.

CMS says in recently released guidance that states do not need to obtain a Medicare denial for certain durable medical equipment coverage before Medicaid, which acts as a secondary payer for those dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid, can pay for the equipment.