Medicaid Chief Says Federal Officials Seeking To Relieve Paperwork Burdens On States
Brian Neale, who heads the Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services, tells state Medicaid directors that he wants to help states get away from cumbersome chores. In other news, Montana lawmakers stop a plan to cut Medicaid reimbursement rates, and Iowa lawmakers hear that state officials knew one insurer was leaving the Medicaid managed care program a month before alerting the public.
MedPage Today:
Relieving Paperwork Burden a Top Priority, Says Medicaid Director
The Trump administration is doing its best to relieve the administrative burden for Medicaid plans, Brian Neale, director of the Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services, said here Wednesday. "Medicaid directors say they are devoting way too much time responding to CMS [Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services-]required tasks," Neale said at the annual meeting of the National Association of Medicaid Directors. "We're going to help them free up those resources. ... At CMS, we've heard from states that our business processes at CMS can be administratively cumbersome. We are often told [that we] ask too many unnecessary questions and that our response times [are too long]." (Frieden, 11/8)
Helena (Mont.) Independent Record:
Legislative Committee Halts Cuts To Medicaid Reimbursement To Maintain Access To Care
After hearing objections from hundreds of people on Medicaid, as well as the doctors and caseworkers who help them, a legislative committee Wednesday halted proposed cuts to Medicaid reimbursement rates. Earlier this year, the Department of Public Health and Human Services, which sets Medicaid rates, proposed lowering how much providers are reimbursed — first by 3.47 percent and then, after public outcry, 2.99 percent. (Michels, 11/8)
Montana Public Radio:
Montana Lawmakers Block Medicaid Provider Rate Cuts
Members of the Children, Families Health and Human Services Interim Committee said Wednesday that state lawmakers only authorized a one percent cut to health care provider pay when they passed a triggered budget-cutting law this spring. They voted 7-1 to tell the Department of Public Health and Human Services that it has failed to give reasonable details about how it came up with the proposed 3.47 percent cut to Medicaid provider pay. (Cates-Carney, 11/8)
Des Moines Register:
DHS Waited 30 Days To Disclose AmeriHealth's Possible Exit From Iowa's Medicaid Program
AmeriHealth gave state administrators 60 days’ notice that it intended to quit helping manage Iowa’s giant Medicaid program, but state officials waited 30 days to inform the public, a top administrator told legislators Wednesday.
AmeriHealth’s abrupt departure from the system is happening because its leaders and state officials failed to agree on how much the company should be paid to cover care for about 215,000 poor or disabled Iowans. Many families and care-service providers are now scrambling to figure out what will happen when AmeriHealth members' coverage shifts to another company Dec. 1. (Leys, 11/8)
Bangor (Maine) Daily News:
As Mainers Endorse Expanding MaineCare, Feds Back LePage Methods To Shrink It
At Maine Equal Justice Partners, an Augusta-based nonprofit that advocates for Mainers living in poverty, attorney Jack Comart said Tuesday’s comfortable win for Question 2 demonstrates widespread support for expanding MaineCare, despite uncertainties related to the ACA and how the program is administered. “This isn’t just a Portland thing or a southern Maine thing,” he said. “It won in rural towns and across the first and second districts. People want access to health care and they want their neighbors to have access to health care.” (Haskell, 11/9)