Latest Morning Briefing Stories
Study Out Next Week on Continuous Coverage
In a study to be released Thursday, a UCLA researcher drew some interesting conclusions about the impact of California’s 12-month continuous Medicaid eligibility policy on continuity of care.
Shana Lavarreda, Director of Health Insurance Studies at UCLA’s Center for Health Policy Research, just completed a study funded by SHARE (the State Health Access Reform Evaluation, a program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation). It tracked where children received care in 2000 and 2001, to measure the effect of the continuous care policy implemented in 2000.
First, she said, one finding really surprised her: “One big finding was that there were still half a million children in California who had discontinuous coverage,” Lavarreda said. “With the huge surge in coverage [after the continuous coverage policy went into effect], we thought children would be covered and remain covered — but you still had kids that were on and off the program.”
Policy Brief Tackles Waiver Policy
A policy brief issued this week summarizes the many facets and programs of the recent federal Medicaid waiver agreement — including one program that few people know about, and which could have a profound effect on public hospitals in California.
“It’s a very exciting and critical element of the waiver,” according to Melissa Stafford Jones, president and CEO of the California Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems.
“It embodies the principles of health care reform into a system that’s smarter and provides more coordinated care,” Stafford Jones said. “It really puts California at the leading edge of that national effort.”
Rationalizing Rationing in Arizona’s Medicaid Program
Both parties have debated whether the federal health reform law would lead to rationing. After Arizona’s unprecedented cuts to its Medicaid program, new questions have emerged about the difficult trade-offs around health care spending.
Golden State Looks On as Others Threaten To Cut Medicaid
Can states pull out of the Medicaid program — and will they? The questions have taken on sudden importance, as some state officials suggest that health reform’s costs are too high and the federal program too restrictive.
New Waiver Sets Bar High for Other States
“It was a long wait,” Norman Williams of the state’s Department of Health Care Services said with a slight sigh. “But it was worth it. This is a good day for California.”
Williams is talking about the Medicaid waiver, which sets the structure and facilitation requirements for California’s Medi-Cal program. The waiver is worth up to $2 billion a year in federal funding to California for the next five years. This waiver is a huge accomplishment, Williams said, because it takes all the elements of national health care reform, and puts them into practical use.
“This is such an important step,” Williams said, “because it allows us to completely restructure California’s health care system, and to rein in costs in Medi-Cal.”
Friday Is New Deadline for Waiver
State health officials get another few days to fine-tune the complex and multi-faceted Medicaid waiver, a plan that is expected to revamp and expand California’s Medi-Cal program. The waiver is worth about $10 billion in federal money over the next five years.
On Friday, CMS granted the extension in a letter to California’s Department of Health Care Services, saying that the agreement was close to finalization and that the extra few days are necessary to finish the “Bridge to Reform” demonstration.
“With these extra few days, we are confident we can finalize the documentation and provide the State with an approval of the Demonstration,” the extension letter said.
Agreement Expected Today on Medicaid Waiver
The formal deadline for wrapping up negotiations on the federal Medicaid waiver for California is Oct. 31, and state officials say it might go right up to the deadline. But since that deadline is on Sunday, health care policy experts are expecting an agreement to be formalized and announced two days earlier than that — by today.
The Medicaid waiver is a complex and multipronged plan to revise the state’s Medi-Cal program and prepare California to implement national health care reform.
California stands to receive about $2 billion a year in federal money over the next five years in the agreement. Roughly half of that is in new money — money beyond what the federal government currently pays per year to help fund Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program.
Exchange Passage Raises Question: Now What?
When you’re the first to launch a new program, it is often greeted with a measure of fear and suspicion, according to Jon Kingsdale, former executive director of the Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector Authority in Massachusetts.
And one of the common misconceptions about the exchange in Massachusetts and the exchange-to-be in California, he said, has been the worry that somehow the exchange will be constantly at odds with health insurance companies.
“As a non-regulatory marketplace for insurance, with a mandate to serve the public, there is a strong interest in having long-term, value-based relations with health plans,” Kingsdale said. “Meaning, we want them to make a little money.”
Preparing for Medi-Cal Transition
State and federal officials are busy finalizing the Medicaid waiver — the agreement on how California should spend $10 billion in federal money on its state Medi-Cal program.
The new way Medi-Cal will run represents a bridge to the full implementation of federal health care reform policies that have to be in place by 2014.
The current negotiation is set to finish at the end of this month.
Dealing with Continual, Constant Cuts
“Well, I have to tell you, I’m looking forward to getting paid again.”
That’s the summary reaction to passage of the state budget from Dave Jones, CEO of Mountain Valleys Health Centers up north in rural Lassen County.
“We are all relieved to have a budget,” he said.