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CMS has released guidance that encourages states to use Medicaid funds to keep elderly and physically and mentally disabled beneficiaries at home and in community-based settings instead of nursing homes. The agency hopes the document will remedy a longstanding imbalance between institutional and home and community-based care, it said. (Dickson, 8/3)

Cuts to Medicaid in Alabama went into effect this week, kicking off a media blitz by a grass-roots organization seeking to bring attention to the shortfall in health care coverage primarily for children. Representatives of the #IAmMedicaid movement spoke at a press conference Wednesday in Huntsville, highlighting repeatedly the ripple effect of Medicaid cuts to everyone in Alabama. (Gattis, 8/3)