Category: Medicaid

Medicare Advantage Overbills Taxpayers By Billions A Year As Feds Struggle To Stop It

An enhanced government effort to catch insurers that overcharge Medicare faces resistance from the insurance industry.

Listen: Young Undocumented Californians Cheer Promise Of Health Benefits

California is the first in the nation to expand Medicaid to young adults living there without legal permission.

How To Get A Cheaper Prescription Before Leaving The Doctor’s Office

A pricing tool embedded in their electronic health record and prescribing system lets doctors see how much patients will pay out-of-pocket based on their insurance and the pharmacy. But doctors have been slow to adopt the technology, which has limitations.

Medi-Cal Enrollment Among Immigrant Kids Stalls, Then Falls. Is Fear To Blame?

Enrollment among undocumented immigrant children in California’s Medicaid program started strong before stagnating and then falling. Although this decline is similar to an enrollment decline among all children in Medicaid nationwide, experts believe there are different reasons behind it.

Newly Blue Maine Expands Access To Abortion

After a wave of Democratic women were elected in 2018, Maine joins the handful of states that are shoring up the right to an abortion ahead of expected Supreme Court challenges.

KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: All About ‘Medicare for All’

Need to know more about “Medicare for All?” It’s a top issue in the Democratic presidential primary campaign. This holiday week, we are rerunning our explainer on the subject. But first, KHN’s “What the Health?” host Julie Rovner talks to KHN’s Shefali Luthra about how health played out in the first Democratic candidate debates last week.

State Lawmakers Eye Federal Dollars To Boost Mental Health Counseling By Peers

Medicaid pays for mentoring of mental health patients by “peer supporters,” but only if they are state-certified. California is one of two states with no certification program. Legislation pending in Sacramento would change that — if the governor backs it.

New Budget Boosts Health Coverage For Low-Income Californians

California lawmakers spent big on Medi-Cal in the 2019-20 state budget, voting to cover more older residents and people with disabilities, restore benefits cut during the recession and open the program to eligible young adults who are in the country illegally. 

Study: Arkansas Medicaid Work Requirements Hit Those Already Employed

More than 95% of the Arkansas residents targeted by the state’s Medicaid work requirement were already working or met the criteria to be exempted from the mandate, according to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Must-Reads Of The Week From Brianna Labuskes

Newsletter editor Brianna Labuskes wades through hundreds of health care policy stories each week, so you don’t have to.