Legislation to help address the opioid epidemic that Congress plans to consider in the coming days includes several provisions enhancing Medicaid’s role in providing comprehensive access to treatment for substance use disorders (SUDs). But states don’t need to wait for this legislation to expand access to opioid treatment through Medicaid. They can take four steps right now:
State policies taking Medicaid coverage away from people who don’t meet a work requirement represent “policy making gone astray, causing more harm than good,” two physicians write in a commentary accompanying two new studies in the September issue of JAMA Internal Medicine. The studies come shortly...
When the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) rightly rejected a Massachusetts proposal to restrict Medicaid beneficiaries’ access to prescription drugs last month, it opened the door to much more radical, harmful changes to Medicaid prescription drug coverage. Specifically, it suggested that states could submit proposals drastically limiting drug coverage provided they also...
The House will consider a bill today to partially repeal a longstanding policy — the Institutions for Mental Disease (IMD) exclusion — prohibiting the use of federal Medicaid funds for care of patients ages 21-64 receiving treatment for substance use disorders (SUDs) in facilities with more than 16...
The Trump Administration has proposed a rule to exclude many qualified safety net family planning clinics from participating in the Title X family planning program, which would sharply reduce access to essential family planning and other health care services for low-income women and men: more than 18 million women (...
The House Energy and Commerce Committee will consider a bill tomorrow to partially repeal a longstanding policy — known as the Institutions for Mental Disease (IMD) exclusion — prohibiting the use of federal Medicaid funds for care of patients ages 21-64 receiving treatment for substance use disorders...
CMS’ new guidance doesn’t provide a convincing rationale for the policy reversal, which could threaten Medicaid coverage for many adults and actually make it harder for some adults to succeed in the labor market due to their loss of health coverage.
Senator Bill Cassidy’s claim that “patients covered through Medicaid often have worse outcomes than those who are covered through other forms of insurance” is just the latest example of congressional Republicans selectively using data to portray...
For the first time, states will be able to require work or work-related activities as a condition of Medicaid eligibility, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Seema Verma recently announced. Verma’s announcement followed a CMS...
