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A north St. Louis nursing home that abruptly closed Friday, leaving workers unpaid and some families unable to locate loved ones, had recently lost a special $1 million annual Medicaid payment. The chaos following the closure of Northview Village Nursing Home continued to unfold Tuesday as workers, union officials and city leaders gathered in front of the building to air their anger at the shuttering of what had been the largest nursing home in St. Louis. Almost 175 residents were moved to more than a dozen different nursing homes over the weekend, sometimes without informing their families. (Barker and Merrilees, 12/20)

Indiana’s Medicaid program will cost about $1 billion more in the current state budget than previously expected. The state revealed an error Tuesday in the estimates lawmakers used to write the budget earlier this year. The underestimate is centered largely on home- and community-based long-term care services. Access to those services were made easier during the COVID-19 pandemic. Once pandemic-era policies ended, demand stayed high, which wasn’t reflected in the funding estimate legislators received in April. (12/19)

As it tries to fend off a potential class-action lawsuit over dropping people from the Medicaid program, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration this week alleged that federal health officials have violated an open-government law by not providing records that could be relevant to the case. (Saunders, 12/21)

Eight months after states started dropping millions of low-income families from Medicaid rolls, grassroots groups say they are leading the push to re-enroll people denied coverage for bureaucratic reasons. Nationwide, more than 12.5 million people have lost coverage since April. That’s when the federal pandemic provision that had required states not to drop anyone from the rolls expired and states restarted income eligibility checks. (Hassanein, 12/21)

Outgoing Republican Rep. Sam Whitson is mulling a reversal of state law requiring the governor to gain approval from the Legislature before expanding Medicaid. Whitson, a Franklin lawmaker who recently announced he will not seek re-election in 2024, said Tuesday he’s been considering such a measure for two years with Tennessee forgoing billions in federal funding that could enable the working poor to obtain insurance coverage. He has not filed a bill yet. The amount Tennessee is losing ballooned from about $1 billion in 2014 to $2.1 billion this year, according to healthinsurance.org. (Stockard, 12/21)

Â鶹ŮÓÅ Health News: Bold Changes Are In Store For Medi-Cal In 2024, But Will Patients Benefit? 

California’s safety-net health program, Medi-Cal, is on the cusp of major changes that could rectify long-standing problems and improve health care for the state’s low-income population. Starting Jan. 1, Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program, will implement new standardized contracts with its 22 managed care health plans, which collectively cover 99% of enrollees. The new contracts tighten enforcement of quality measures, especially for women and children; require the health plans to report publicly on the performance of medical providers ― and in some cases other insurers ― to whom they delegate care; and mandate that plans reveal the number of enrollees who don’t have access to primary care and invest more to plug the gap. They also commit plans to better integration of physical and mental health care and greater responsiveness to the cultural and linguistic needs, sexual orientation, and gender identity of members. (Wolfson, 12/22)