Unbiased Analysis of Today's Healthcare Issues
Of the 6.6 million uninsured children in the nation, 4.3 million are eligible for Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). Approximately 2.8 million children come from families at or near the federal poverty line (FPL). Despite the fact that millions of children are uninsured, children’s participation rates in Medicaid/CHIP are increasing. Today I…
According to Avalere Health the people who will be added to Medicaid through healthcare reform are more sick — and therefore will be more expensive to treat — than current beneficiaries. This chart below uses data from the 2008 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) to demonstrate this point.
CMS has a wealth of publicly available summary statistics regarding enrollment, spending, treatment patterns, cost sharing and other topics for both Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries. This information can be accessed through the Medicare & Medicaid Statistical Supplement website. The site includes statistics on the following topics: Personal Health Care Expenditures Medicare Enrollment Medicare Program Payments…
President Obama released a proposal last week to jump start the economy and reduce the deficit. The proposal includes many cuts to Medicare and increased cost sharing. Senators Coburn and Lieberman are supporting these cuts. Increased cost sharing is a common theme in Medicare, Medicaid, but also for other programs as well. For instance, the…
One of the goals of health reform was to expand coverage to poor childless adults who previously did not qualify for Medicaid. One unintended (or perhaps intended) consequence of this expansion is that a large number of individuals formerly convicted of crimes will be eligible for the this coverage. Policymakers face a number of questions. …
Massachusetts’ Medicaid program instituted a pay-for-performance program in 2008. Did it work? According to this paper, the answer is no. MassHealth P4P Background The MassHealth pay-for-perfrmance P4P program was implemented in 2008. At first the program was implmented using a P4P structure for pneumonia and pay-for-reporting for surgical infection prevention (SIP) and transitioning to P4P…
A RAND HIE for Medicaid? “In 2008, a group of uninsured low-income adults in Oregon was selected by lottery to be given the chance to apply for Medicaid…In the year after random assignment, the treatment group selected by the lottery was about 25 percentage points more likely to have insurance than the control group that…
As the economy worsened, Medicaid enrollment has risen. In the short-run, however, States have been able to avoid large increases in Medicaid spending because the Federal government has footed the tab. According to the HHS: “Over the past three years, despite rising enrollment due to the economic recession, nationwide State spending on the Medicaid program…
Health Reform made a number of changes for State’s health care policies. But states themselves have also been enacting legislation to alter health care payment policies and regulations. The CHCF describes some examples of legislative changes in California: Safety Net Care Pool (SNCP) – covers uncompensated costs in public hospitals and finances other state health…
Congressman Paul Ryan’s budget proposal has made significant waves. Many will fear that the Ryan proposal means the end of Medicare and Medicaid. Although these programs will not end, there will be significant changes. One can think of many of these changes as a transfer of risk. Consider the Medicare program. Although Medicare will not…