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Sixty percent of kids who have lost Medicaid coverage this year came from just nine states, all of which are Republican-led, according to new data from the Biden administration. And the 10 states refusing the Affordable Care Act's expansion of Medicaid to low-income adults have disenrolled more kids than all of the expansion states combined, the administration also reported. (Goldman, 12/19)

In letters sent Monday to the governors of Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Montana, New Hampshire, Ohio, South Dakota and Texas, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra urged the states to take up more of options CMS has offered to ensure coverage. The options include allowing states to use enrollee information they have to auto-renew coverage. HHS also issued new guidance for states Monday, including an option to give kids an additional 12 months to get on the rolls. That option is available through 2024, CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure told reporters. (Cirruzzo, 12/18)

When Mike Huckabee was governor, he oversaw a huge increase in the percentage of Arkansas children with health insurance thanks to the then-visionary ARKids program. His daughter, Gov. Sarah Sanders, has overseen an unprecedented shift in the opposite direction. Some 78,500 Arkansas children lost Medicaid coverage between March and September, according to a presentation shared today by federal officials — an 18% decline over a seven-month period. Almost every state is removing enrollees from Medicaid, both children and adults, because of recent changes in the safety net program. But few states have been as harsh as Arkansas, which is among the top five in terms of both percentage decline in child Medicaid coverage and change in absolute enrollment numbers. (Hardy, 12/18)

Georgia is disenrolling children from Medicaid in greater numbers than most other states, many of whom may actually be eligible for coverage, according to information released Monday by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The news came on the same day Georgia announced a new allocation of $54 million to bolster and repair the understaffed effort to requalify the state’s Medicaid recipients. Georgia officials made the decision one month after an Atlanta Journal-Constitution report documented a processing system so broken that enrollees are often given instructions that are impossible to follow, or information on a cell phone screen that contradicts what they see on a desktop screen for the same Medicaid account. (Hart, 12/18)

Medicaid expansion in North Carolina is now in full effect, and initial enrollment data indicates a strong start, according to the state’s health secretary. “Out of the gate, (we’re) feeling really good about the number of folks enrolled,” said Kody Kinsley, Secretary of the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, in an interview. Progress in the first few days of expansion, which started on Dec. 1, is “pretty phenomenal,” he said. As of Dec. 12, 280,000 people have enrolled to receive Medicaid insurance, according to data shared by DHHS. (Guinassi, 12/19)

Hundreds of independent primary care organizations in Massachusetts will see sizable increases in Medicaid reimbursement next year, as state officials move to stabilize an industry facing severe financial challenges. Practices with a high percentage of patients on Medicaid, a government insurance program largely for low-income people, have been struggling with reimbursement rates that are too low to cover rising expenses. ... The increase announced this month by MassHealth may relieve some of that pressure. (Bartlett, 12/18)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Social Security Chief Apologizes To Congress For Misleading Testimony On Overpayments 

The head of the Social Security Administration has sent a letter of apology to members of Congress about testimony in which she understated the extent of the agency’s overpayments to beneficiaries. “I want to apologize for any confusion or misunderstanding during the October hearing,” acting Commissioner Kilolo Kijakazi wrote in a letter dated Dec. 11. (Hilzenrath and Fleischer, 12/19)