Plans to drug test welfare recipients get momentum, By Ben Neary and Ivan Moreno (AP), February 26, 2012, Deseret News: “Conservatives who say welfare recipients should have to pass a drug test to receive government assistance have momentum on their side. The issue has come up in the Republican presidential campaign, with front-runner Mitt Romney saying it’s an ‘excellent idea.’ Nearly two dozen states are considering plans this session that would make drug testing mandatory for welfare recipients, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. And Wyoming lawmakers advanced such a proposal this week. Driving the measures is a perception that people on public assistance are misusing the funds and that cutting off their benefits would save money for tight state budgets – even as statistics have largely proved both notions untrue…”
Day: February 27, 2012
State Medicaid Programs – North Carolina, Ohio, Missouri
- Pregnancy medical homes gain momentum in North Carolina, By Christine Vestal, February 24, 2012, Stateline.org: “Like most southern states, North Carolina has a higher than average rate of infant deaths and premature births. So it made sense to Medicaid Director Craigan Gray, a trained obstetrician, to attack the problem head on. Shortly after taking over in 2009, he began a campaign to create a new kind of program that would identify Medicaid beneficiaries with high-risk pregnancies sooner than before and use proven medical procedures to help prevent problems at birth. Launched less than a year ago, Gray’s program, called pregnancy medical homes, is showing promise…”
- Sickest unsettled by state’s plans to change long-term care, By Catherine Candisky, February 27, 2012, Columbus Dispatch: “The state plans sweeping changes to the way it provides long-term care and other health services to 190,000 Ohioans eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid. ‘Dual eligibles’ are among the sickest and most expensive to care for. In Ohio, they make up 10 percent of the 2.1 million on Medicaid, yet they account for 46 percent of long-term-care costs. Gov. John Kasich’s administration wants to better coordinate their care. But details are sketchy, and that’s created a lot of worry for enrollees such as Carl Meyers, 86, of Westerville…”
- Mo. changing rules for Medicaid ‘spend down’ plan, By Wes Duplantier (AP), February 27, 2012, Southeast Missourian: “Some low-income seniors and people with disabilities in Missouri could have to pay more out of their pockets to qualify for Medicaid coverage under changes being initiated after the state realized it was running afoul of federal rules. About 24,000 Missouri residents qualify for Medicaid — even though their income is higher than the program’s federal limits — by ‘spending down’ the difference between their monthly income and the federal eligibility limit. They do that in one of two ways — sending the state a cash payment, sort of like a monthly insurance premium, or by submitting medical bills that show they spent that excess income on medications and treatments. About one-third of the people in the program submit medical bills to satisfy their monthly ‘spend down’ amount. The problem, as state officials told a Senate panel last week, is that the state might have been giving people too much credit toward their monthly ‘spend down’ amount…”
Child Support Debt
Rule could leave child-support debtors no income, By Daniel Wagner (AP), February 27, 2012, Detroit News: ” Old child support debts could cost thousands of poor men their only income next year because of a policy aimed at reducing the cost to the government of mailing paper checks to pay federal benefits. The Treasury Department will start paying benefits electronically next March. It will stop issuing the paper checks that many people rely on to safeguard a portion of their benefits from states trying to collect back child support. States can freeze the bank accounts of people who owe child support. A separate Treasury Department rule, in place since last May in a preliminary form, guarantees them the power to freeze Social Security, disability and veterans’ benefits that have been deposited into those accounts. Once paper checks are eliminated, about 275,000 people could lose access to all of their income, advocates say…”