Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Many Black, Latino Parents Don't Know Children Are Eligible For Health Coverage: Study
Medicaid and the Children鈥檚 Health Insurance Program (CHIP) were developed to give society鈥檚 most vulnerable kids a chance at health care. But there鈥檚 a catch: In many states, parents must sign their kids up for the programs to receive coverage. And to sign their kids up, parents must know that their kids are eligible in the first place. A new study published in the International Journal for Equity in Health found a distressing information gap among parents of uninsured Latino and African American kids. (Blakemore, 4/4)
Gov. Terry Branstad said Monday the official shifting of 560,000 poor and disabled Iowans to privately managed Medicaid health care has gone off without any major hiccups so far. 鈥淏y the reports that we鈥檝e received, the transition to managed care has been smooth and went off without any major disruptions to Medicaid patients or the providers that are serving them,鈥 Branstad said. (Pfannenstiel, 4/4)
Last Friday, about 3,000 calls were made to the state 鈥渃all center鈥 created to help figure out benefits for Iowa Medicaid patients and the health care professionals who treat them. Friday was the day Iowa鈥檚 560,000 Medicaid patients were switched to a private managed care system. Governor Terry Branstad describes the transition as 鈥渟mooth." (Henderson, 4/4)
A statewide registry is in the works to make it easier for Medicaid patients to find qualified, reliable personal care workers. That鈥檚 good news for Bill Stovall of Topeka and others like him who help direct care for their family members. (Hart, 4/4)
The state Department of Health and Human Services has been cited again by the State Auditor鈥檚 Office with lack of effective oversight, this time involving an estimated $835 million in Medicaid overpayments to doctors and hospitals. The state Medicaid program covers about 1.9 million North Carolina residents and is a $14 billion-a-year program. (Craver, 4/4)
DHHS processed about 127 million claims for payments totaling $11 billion last year, according to the audit. Auditors looked at a sample of 396 payments and found errors in 50 of them, with total overpayments of $4,288. The errors amount to $835 million when projected to cover the entire caseload, the audit said. DHHS spokeswoman Kendra Gerlach challenged that figure in a statement, saying the cost was lower. (Bonner, 4/4)
When Alexander Hernandez of Los Lunas received a letter recently telling him his Medicaid coverage might drop his doctors, it was jaw-dropping news. His insurance provider, UnitedHealthcare, had written to tell the 79-year-old he might no longer have access to University of New Mexico Hospital and its providers. 鈥淭he whole reason he is alive is because of his health care team,鈥 his caregiver Ann Piro said, adding that Hernandez has had a kidney transplant and a triple bypass, and is also diabetic and on oxygen. (Sinovic, 4/4)
