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Consultants hired by the state Legislature updated a legislative task force on several matters related to health-care reform Monday, including a $25 million increase in the estimated cost to Arkansas of its Medicaid expansion program over the next five years. Testifying before the Health Reform Legislative Task Force, consultants with The Stephen Group discussed the application the state submitted June 30 for federal approval of changes to the Medicaid expansion program that has been known as the private option and that Gov. Asa Hutchinson and the Legislature are seeking to revise under the new name Arkansas Works. (Lyon, 7/12)

Arkansas officials should consider transferring more high-cost enrollees from the private option to the traditional, fee-for-service Medicaid program, a sponsor of the law that created the program said Monday. At a meeting of the Health Reform Legislative Task Force, Senate President Pro Tempore Jonathan Dismang, R-Searcy, said he's concerned that health care costs of some enrollees are increasing the cost of coverage for others in the state's individual insurance market. "If we do not have the mechanism to make sure those folks are in the right category with the right coverage, then we're going to continue to have this problem," said Dismang, considered one of the private option's legislative architects. (Davis, 7/12)

So far, Georgia’s Republican-led government has opted against expansion, saying it would ultimately be too costly for the state. Support for the idea has shown some momentum lately, but it faces opposition from Republicans in the General Assembly. Still, it’s unclear when, or whether, there will be any study of expansion’s possible financial impact on the Georgia budget. Such an analysis would help identify potential gains from expansion, says Bill Custer, a health insurance expert at Georgia State University. “I am confident it would show significant savings.” (Miller, 7/11)

Three Republican lawmakers sued the state Department of Public Health and Human Services on Monday, claiming it is withholding information on people enrolled in Medicaid expansion in Montana through the Affordable Care Act and whether participants are qualified. The lawsuit, filed on behalf of Reps. Tom Burnett and Art Wittich of Bozeman and Sen. Roger Webb of Billings in the 18th judicial district court in Gallatin County, claims that more than 47,000 Montanans have been added to the Medicaid program since November 2015, which they say exceeds projections of 25,000, likely increasing the state’s share of the costs. (Drake, 7/11)

A trio of Republican legislators on Monday sued the Bullock administration to obtain household-income data for those signing up for Montana’s new expanded Medicaid health coverage. The suit, filed in state District Court in Bozeman, said the lawmakers have made “repeated requests” for the information since February, and that the Bullock administration is “refusing to disclose to the public the growing costs of the program. …” (Dennison, 7/11)

Gov. Dennis Daugaard isn't done talking about Medicaid. The governor used radio appearances Monday to make the case for expanding the insurance program for needy people in the 2017 legislative session. On KELO-AM, the governor told host Greg Belfrage that holding a special session to discuss expansion would have been fruitless and mired in "political drama." But the topic could be more favorable in the 2017, he said, after lawmakers are able to delve into the plan, which involves using savings from a federal policy change. (Ferguson, 7/11)