August 3 Update

In This Week’s Update:

  • Would Cancer Patients Be Able to Meet Work Requirements?
  • Medicaid Family Planning Programs: A Pathway Forward After Coverage Loss
  • Safeguarding Safety-Net Hospitals Against Private Equity
  • New CMS Proposed Rule: Provider TAX
  • State updates: DE, IA, IN, MA, MD, ME, MI, NC, ND, NE, NM, NV, NY, VA & WV

Would Cancer Patients Be Able to Meet Work Requirements?
An American Cancer Society Action Network survey examined whether cancer patients and survivors could realistically meet the documentation demands of Medicaid work requirements. The findings show that a majority experienced significant disruptions to work during treatment, had to miss more than a month of work or other activities, and/or did not understand any of the potential exemptions when applying.

Medicaid Family Planning Programs: A Pathway Forward After Coverage Loss
States are required to assess individuals who lose Medicaid eligibility for other available coverage before terminating benefits, and Medicaid family planning programs are expected to become an increasingly important coverage pathway. Manatt Insights highlights how, as part of H.R.1 implementation, states should act to strengthen Medicaid family planning programs to prepare for increased enrollment and preserve access to essential family planning services.

Safeguarding Safety-Net Hospitals Against Private Equity
A Georgetown Center on Health Insurance Reforms case study examines how Prospect Medical Holdings and a private equity (PE) firm destabilized safety-net hospitals in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Rhode Island while maximizing their own profits. The case study finds that PE-backed ownership increased debt obligations, staff layoffs, supply shortages, and bankruptcy and hospital closures, highlighting the financial vulnerability of safety-net hospitals and the need for stronger safeguards.

New CMS Proposed Rule: Provider Taxes
State Health and Value Strategies published an analysis of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) recently released provider taxes proposed rule. The proposed rule provides significant new details on which provider taxes would be grandfathered under the law; how CMS would establish the new thresholds for grandfathered provider taxes; and how CMS would implement the phase down for expansion states and monitor compliance. All states except Alaska use provider taxes to fund a portion of the non-federal share of Medicaid program expenses, with hospitals and managed care organizations representing 90% of all state provider taxes.

State updates: DE, IA, IN, MA, MD, ME, MI, NC, ND, NE, NM, NV, NY, VA & WV