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More than 17,000 individuals will lose their health coverage today despite a federally mandated change in Arkansas' process for conducting Medicaid renewals, a spokesman for the state Department of Health and Human Services said Monday. ... Under a change ordered by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the state Human Services Department said Friday that it would begin giving recipients 30 days to provide such records. But Human Services Department spokesman Amy Webb said Monday that the new policy does not apply to those whose coverage had already been scheduled to end today because they did not respond to the income-verification requests within the earlier 10-day deadline. (Davis, 9/1)

The Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General accused three Southeastern Pennsylvania residents of fraudulently billing Medicaid a total of $26,558 for personal-care services. Jeanne Schafle, 60, of Ambler, allegedly billed Medicaid $9,444 for attendant-care services to her daughter when her daughter was in the hospital on 13 separate occasions from March 2012 through March of this year. (Brubaker, 8/31)

Gov. Terry Branstad is downplaying controversies experienced by four companies selected to manage Iowa’s $4.2 billion Medicaid program, and he says he’s hopeful disputes over the bidding process won’t delay the implementation of their oversight of health care for 560,000 poor and disabled persons. The four winning bidders – Amerigroup, UnitedHealthcare, WellCare and AmeriHealth – have each faced serious charges of fraud or mismanagement in other states with some forced to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in fines, a Des Moines Register investigation has found. (Petroski, 8/31)

Governor Branstad is minimizing complaints about the private firms selected to manage Iowa’s more than four billion dollar Medicaid program that provides health care for Iowa’s poor and disabled. (Russell, 8/31)

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said New Jersey should repay the federal government $32.2 million after a federal audit found medical records and other documents missing when state officials submitted claims for Medicaid reimbursement. The findings, detailed in a report obtained by The Record to be released today, mark the second time in four years that federal officials have raised concerns about questionable claims for care provided to homebound elderly or low-income residents. After the earlier audit, they called for $145 million to be returned. (Rizzo and Layton, 8/31)

The families of more than 35,000 children enrolled in the Florida Healthy Kids program will soon have to choose between two more expensive plans, or find new insurance. The Florida Healthy Kids Corporation recently sent a letter to parents enrolled in the full-pay program earlier this month. It said new requirements in the Affordable Care Act forced them to either raise their rates or shut down the full-pay program, which is part of the Florida KidCare program that serves about 400,000 Florida children. (Miller, 8/27)