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Some people who get their health insurance through Medicaid would have to start paying monthly premiums under Gov. Kelly Ayotte’s proposed budget. In her budget address last week, Ayotte said people enrolled in the safety-net insurance program would pay a “nominal” share of their health care costs. But details of that plan became clearer Friday afternoon, when state Medicaid officials presented to lawmakers in the House. (Cuno-Booth, 2/24)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Montana’s Medicaid Expansion Conundrum

Despite concerns about what Congress and the Trump administration might have planned for Medicaid, Montana’s Republican-led legislature and GOP governor appear ready to keep the state’s Medicaid expansion program in place beyond its scheduled end date this summer. State lawmakers don’t have the luxury of waiting until the federal picture sharpens. They must decide before the session ends in early May whether to lift a June 30 sunset date for the expansion program, which covers about 76,000 adults. (O'Connell, 2/24)

Republicans' plans for cuts to Medicaid could be a big problem for insurance companies like Centene and Molina Healthcare that specialize in providing coverage for low-income enrollees. Congress is considering healthcare policy changes to slash spending by $880 billion and pay for expiring tax cuts that largely benefit the wealthy. ... Republicans are mulling whether to eliminate the federal government’s 90% match rate for Medicaid expansion, implement work requirements and set per capita spending limits for states, among other policies. (2/21)

Telehealth companies are used to an uncertain regulatory environment but the dizzying pace at which President Donald Trump’s administration has operated is causing concern about the industry’s future. Virtual care companies are bracing for the impact from potential Medicaid rate cuts, navigating a delayed final rule regarding the remote prescribing of buprenorphine and facing a March 31 deadline for Medicare coverage flexibilities. (Turner, 2/21)

�鶹Ů�� Health News: Watch: What Is Medicaid, Again?

Republicans in Congress have suggested big cuts to Medicaid. But what exactly is it? Medicaid, the state-federal health insurance program for people with low incomes or disabilities, is integral to the U.S. health care system. It keeps hospitals and other providers afloat, provides a key source of federal funds to states, and helps provide health insurance to people who couldn’t otherwise afford it. More than 79 million people in the U.S. receive services from Medicaid or the closely related Children’s Health Insurance Program. (Whitehead, 2/24)

The District’s only psychiatric hospital prioritizes profits over patient care, systematically committing patients when not medically necessary to maximize insurance payments, a former patient alleges in a lawsuit. (Portnoy, 2/24)

Civil rights protections for transgender Iowans would be removed from state law under a bill introduced Thursday by Republicans on the Iowa House Judiciary Committee. It would remove gender identity as a protected characteristic from the Iowa Civil Rights Act, which currently provides transgender Iowans with protection from discrimination in housing, education, employment, public accommodations and credit practices. (Sostaric, 2/21)

Texas is suing the largest college sports governing body in the country in the hopes that a court will order the organization to “immediately begin screening the sex of student athletes.”  Although the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) has already barred transgender women from playing in women’s sports, Texas’ attorney general has accused the group of using loopholes to allow such competition. (Rummler, 2/21)

Experts in disease prevention criticized Baltimore and Maryland’s response to Legionella bacteria found in public buildings across the city and state. “Rather than continuing to take a wait-a[nd]-see approach to where the bacteria will turn up next, Maryland officials should put policies in place to prevent this disease, which can be deadly for one in ten who contract it,” the Alliance to Prevent Legionnaires’ Disease said in a statement released earlier this month, citing Legionella discovered at Spring Grove Hospital Center in Catonsville, first reported by The Baltimore Sun. (Bazos, 2/23)

An inmate on South Carolina's death row has chosen to die on March 7 by firing squad, his lawyer said Friday. Brad Sigmon, 67, who was convicted in 2002 of killing his ex-girlfriend’s parents, would be the first condemned prisoner to be executed by that method in South Carolina and the first inmate to die by firing squad in the U.S. since 2010, when Ronnie Lee Gardner was put to death in Utah. (Ortiz and Siemaszko, 2/21)