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Federal officials want Georgia Medicaid to return more than $100 million in payments made to nursing homes. The feds say these payments were not permitted under the program’s regulations. (Miller, 4/20)

Thanks to Obamacare, there's a growing population enrolling in Medicaid upon their first opportunity: prisoners. Under the Affordable Care Act, a large proportion of incarcerated adults have become eligible for Medicaid in states that have expanded their Medicaid program. They can't receive Medicaid benefits while behind bars, but many states are now working to ensure they are enrolled immediately upon reentering society. Doing that, the thinking goes, will help prevent costly emergency health care and, potentially, decrease recidivism rates. (Owens, 4/21)

New Jersey's Human Services Department chief told lawmakers Monday that the state expects to get an analysis of its Medicaid program in May that should help with development of a computer-based program to reduce a backlog of applicants. Acting Commissioner Elizabeth Connolly said at an Assembly budget hearing that the KPMG report, at a cost of $850,000, will be used by Xerox to develop the new process. (Catalini, 4/20)

Gov. Terry Branstad’s plan to privatize the state’s Medicaid program is moving forward, though critics are raising questions about how the shift will impact patients. Earlier this year, the state began an effort to shift Medicaid administration to two or more managed care organizations, to which Iowa will pay a fixed amount per enrollee to provide health coverage. State officials predict cost savings and say patients will still have access to quality health care. But Democratic Senate President Pam Jochum, of Dubuque, said this week that she is not convinced. (4/20)

A pilot program that paid private psychiatric hospitals to treat adults on Medicaid ended abruptly last week, two months earlier than expected, which could leave south Alabama with a shortage of treatment beds. AltaPointe Health Systems has been receiving about $2 million annually since 2012 to treat adult Medicaid patients in its two inpatient hospitals, BayPointe and EastPointe, according to CEO Tuerk Schlesinger. Freestanding psychiatric hospitals have historically been excluded from Medicaid, and cannot receive payment for treating adults in the program unless they participated in the pilot program. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services notified AltaPointe and other hospitals last week that money for the program ran out, Schlesinger said. (Yurkanin, 4/20)