Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Feds Worry Iowa's Private Medicaid Plan Could Put Some At Risk
A senior federal official expressed 鈥渟ignificant concerns鈥 Friday that Iowa鈥檚 plans to shift its Medicaid health insurance program to private management could put the quality of health care for 560,000 low-income and older Iowans at risk. Questions are also being raised about the extent to which so-called managed care organizations, health care providers and people receiving Medicaid services are prepared for the transition, which is scheduled to begin Jan. 1, said Timothy Hill, deputy director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a unit of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (Petroski, 11/6)
Some of the claims made by the for-profit corporations chosen to manage Iowa鈥檚 $4.2 billion annual Medicaid program contain unverifiable data, misleading statements or half-truths, a Des Moines Register investigation has found. The questionable information was provided to Iowa officials in public bid documents used to help the companies edge out competitors to win the lucrative contracts. (Clayworth, 11/7)
A little more than a year from now, Nebraska Medicaid recipients will have their physical and mental health care -- and medications -- managed under a new program called Heritage Health. State Department of Health and Human Services officials recently announced they are sending out requests for proposals for two to three companies to make up the program. Now, Medicaid recipients get their care through different programs. (Young, 11/8)
Sen. John McCollister of Omaha will hit the road this month to share with Nebraskans a new legislative proposal to access available federal Medicaid expansion dollars and use them to purchase private health care insurance for the working poor. McCollister, who is teaming up with Sens. Kathy Campbell of Lincoln and Heath Mello of Omaha to push for a new private market-centered plan modeled after legislation in Arkansas, has scheduled meetings in 10 communities spreading from Omaha to Alliance. (Walton, 11/8)
Cancer patients insured by California鈥檚 health plan for low-income people are less likely to get recommended treatment and also have lower survival rates than patients with other types of insurance, according to a new study by University of California-Davis researchers. While other studies have linked Medicaid insurance status to worse cancer outcomes, the UC-Davis study appears to be the first to examine the impact of various kinds of health insurance across more than one kind of cancer. (Feder Ostrov, 11/6)
Also, coordinated care for Medicaid recipients in Michigan seeks to make patient access to care easier, and Alaska appeals a decision on Medicaid coverage of abortion --
What Michigan's low-income seniors and disabled people don't know could their make health care a whole lot easier. It also could help them tap into care, such as dental services, that they've long been unable to get. "Right now, there is the fear of the unknown," said Jo Murphy, executive director of the Michigan Medicare/Medicaid Assistance Program (MMAP), which helps consumers sort through their coverage choices. ... The state's experimental program, MI Health Link, is an effort to coordinate care for more than 230,000 Michiganders whose health care is paid by both Medicare and Medicaid, a confusing tangle of fee-for-service coverage. (Erb, 11/8)
The state of Alaska is appealing a judge's decision that found a state law and regulation further defining what constitutes a medically necessary abortion for purposes of Medicaid funding to be unconstitutional. Jonathan Woodman, a senior assistant attorney general, said by email that the appeal will argue that the state can establish standards to distinguish between elective and medically necessary abortions so that Medicaid pays only for those medically necessary. (Bohrer, 11/7)
