Medicaid Expansions

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) has several provisions that hope to mitigate the rapidly rising tide of uninsured young adults. Young adults happen to be one of the largest uninsured segments of the United States population.

The Labor Department released its survey to help HHS determine what is an "essential benefit" which will determine what insurers will have to cover in the state exchanges. The study mainly looked at large employer benefits.

West Virginia's governor has enacted a temporary provider tax for acute care hospitals in order to generate more federal Medicaid dollars. The enabling legislation, H.B. 492, was signed by the state's acting governor, Earl Ray Tomblin, on April 5, 2011.

On March 15, Governor Jan Brewer unveiled a plan to cut payments to health care providers by 5 percent, beginning on October 1. This cut is in addition to another 5 percent cut slated to take effect on April 1.

Amid state budget concerns, on January 7, 2011, thirty-three governors across the country asked the Obama administration and Congress to lift the maintenance of effort (MOE) requirements included in the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

In response to states’ pervasive budget deficits and the related challenges of managing costly Medicaid programs, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius sent a letter to governors outlining areas where states have flexibility to address rising costs.

This report highlights key characteristics of the state health insurance exchange population, based on Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates of the effects of Affordable Care Act on insurance coverage, to help federal and state policymakers and other researchers make informed decisions regarding how to structure the Exchanges to meet the healthcare needs of individuals across the country.

This report was created as a guide for states to use through the planning and implementaion process of the Medicaid primary care provider reimbursement increase set for 2013.

This paper highlights the challenges of transforming small primary care practices, how Medicaid can offer shared supports to providers or catalyze them into investing in modernized systems of care, and what else federal and state governments can do to help advance these efforts.

The objective of this study was to examine state variation in Medicaid primary care provider (PCP) supply. The study also looks at how state variation in Medicaid PCP supply will change after the Medicaid expansion begins in 2014.