Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Kentucky Governor's Proposal To Revamp Medicaid Expansion Moves Forward At HHS
The federal government told the Bevin administration Thursday that its Medicaid waiver proposal has 鈥渟ufficient information to evaluate鈥 and it now wants to hear from Kentuckians what they think about the proposal. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Press Secretary Marjorie Connolly said the agency has certified the completeness of Kentucky鈥檚 application for a Medicaid waiver, one of the first hurdles the proposal must clear. She said the next step is a 30-day federal comment period. (Brammer, 9/8)
"Application completeness is an early step in the waiver review process, and simply means that the waiver contains sufficient information to evaluate it," said Marjorie Connolly, press secretary for HHS. Connolly added, "We now begin the federal comment period, during which we look forward to the people of Kentucky sharing their views and questions with HHS." She said following the comment period the waiver process normally involves "significant additional dialogue" between HHS and a state seeking a waiver. (Loftus, 9/9)
Two weeks after a State House stalemate killed any chance of an Alabama lottery, lawmakers passed a plan to provide a short-term boost for the budget and pay off $400 million in debt. The plan uses most of a $1 billion oil spill settlement that BP is due to pay over 18 years. Gov. Robert Bentley, who had proposed the lottery as a way to help pay for state programs, especially Medicaid, said the bill was a big win for the state and said he expects to sign it into law after a review. (Cason, 9/8)
The compromise settlement will take the state鈥檚 settlement share as a single $639 million lump sum. $400 million of that will go to pay outstanding debts which, combined with money from Gov. Robert Bentley and $15 million given directly to the [Medicaid] program from settlement, should leave the agency with the extra $85 million it says it needs to maintain services in 2017. The bill also allocates $105 million to the program in 2018. (Lyman, 9/7)
Shortly after state lawmakers officially reconvene for a special legislative session on Monday, a small group of officials聽will continue their discussions with聽health care experts聽as they work on a Medicaid聽expansion plan. Members of the the 3-Star Healthy Task Force, which formed in June, will meet with officials from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine on Monday,聽Rep. Steve McManus, R-Cordova, told members of a聽legislative committee meeting on聽Wednesday. (Ebert, 9/8)
