Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Cost Of Care For New Medicaid Enrollees Higher Than Expected, Federal Actuaries Report
The cost of covering people who qualified for Medicaid as part of the federal health law was significantly higher than expected in 2014, federal actuaries said Friday. Adults who became eligible for Medicaid as a result of the health law鈥檚 expansion of the program to include most low-income Americans incurred average medical costs of $5,517, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services office of the actuary said. That was about $1,000 higher than had initially been expected for the first full year of the expansion. (Radnofsky, 7/10)
More than two-thirds of Republican lawmakers who sued to overturn Medicaid coverage for low-income Arizonans took state-sponsored health-insurance plans that offer more-robust medical benefits than what the average Arizonan gets from private employers. (Alltucker, 7/11)
Industry representatives say Indiana's expanded health care program for low-income residents has functioned smoothly in the months since it was implemented following federal approval. The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in January approved expanding the existing Healthy Indiana Plan into a larger program that Gov. Mike Pence has dubbed HIP 2.0. That program uses federal Medicaid funds under President Barack Obama's health care law to cover people with incomes under 138 percent of the federal poverty level. (7/10)
At the pace it's going, Xerox Corp. will be six years past its renegotiated deadline by the time it completes an $84 million state contract for a new computer program to manage Medicaid payments, according to an audit of the project. State officials received the report last week after the Legislature sought an outside review. Since the Medicaid Management and Information system project began in 2012, Xerox has been found in breach of contract for missing deadlines and a legislative panel has given them a vote of no confidence. (Baumann, 7/10)
A state program that uses a combination of state tobacco tax revenue and federal Medicaid money to help provide health insurance coverage for nearly 18,000 low-income Oklahoma will receive federal funding through the end of 2016, state officials said on Friday. Gov. Mary Fallin and Oklahoma Health Care Authority Chief Executive Officer announced that Oklahoma's request for an extension has been approved by the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. (7/10)
