Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Pressure Rises On Biden As Millions, Including Kids, Lose Medicaid
Millions of people are being pushed off state Medicaid rolls as the U.S. dismantles one of the last major Covid-era safety nets, and congressional Democrats and health advocates want the Biden administration to do more to ensure people are protected.聽Nationwide, nearly 5.5 million people have been purged from state Medicaid rolls across 45 states and the District of Columbia, according to health policy research group 麻豆女优.聽 (Weixel, 8/28)
For months, Evangelina Hernandez watched helplessly as her autistic twin sons regressed 鈥 their screaming, biting and scratching worsening. The Wichita, Kansas, resident couldn鈥檛 afford the $3,000 monthly tab for their 10 prescriptions or their doctor visits without Medicaid. The toddlers, along with three of their sisters, lost their health insurance in May, swept up in the state鈥檚 eligibility review of all its Medicaid enrollees. Hernandez said she only received the renewal packet a day before it was due and mailed it back right away. She also called KanCare, the state鈥檚 Medicaid program, and filled out another application over the phone, certain that the kids remained eligible. (Luhby, 8/26)
Schools across the country are missing out on millions of dollars from an unlikely federal source 鈥 Medicaid 鈥 because of longstanding bureaucratic hurdles that the Biden administration is now trying to address. (Harris, 8/29)
In Medicaid news from North Carolina and Texas 鈥
With the state budget鈥檚 passage now two months late, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper鈥檚 administration announced Monday that it can鈥檛 start the implementation of Medicaid expansion to hundreds of thousands of low-income adults in the early fall as it had wanted. State Health and Human Services Secretary Kody Kinsley said that expansion won鈥檛 begin on Oct. 1, which in July he unveiled as the start date 鈥 provided that a budget law was enacted by Sept. 1. (Robertson, 8/28)
Physicians who take Medicaid will start to see payment increases for certain office visits. Children鈥檚 wellness visits are one of the fields affected. 鈥淭his last legislative session, there were some payment increases for Medicaid services, specifically payment for office visits to children including well-child visits,鈥 said Dr. Zeke Silva, President of the Bexar County Medical Society. Doctors will also see payment increases for certain women鈥檚 health visits. (8/27)
