- Initiative places Medicaid recipients back home, By Elizabeth Simpson, March 25, 2012, Virginian-Pilot: “When Linda Archie moved into a Virginia Beach nursing home five years ago, she thought her days of being independent were over. Archie, 71, is paralyzed on one side of her body because of brain aneurysms. She had to get used to sharing a room, eating and sleeping according to schedule, and putting up with the assumption that ‘I wasn’t right up here,’ she said, tapping her head. That’s where they were wrong. In 2009, someone showed up at her bedside with a question: Did she want to move out? She did. ‘I felt like I had my life back,’ said Archie, who’s been living in an apartment for the past two years. It’s a question required by the government to be asked of nursing home residents at least four times a year, and it’s bolstered by a federal initiative called ‘Money Follows the Person’ that helps people on Medicaid move out of long-term care facilities…”
- Cutting Medicaid drug spending not a simple task, By Carla K. Johnson (AP), March 25, 2012, Springfield State Journal-Register: “The search for Medicaid savings might drive some lawmakers to drugs – examining drug spending, that is. Medications for 2.7 million poor and disabled Illinoisans now cost the Medicaid program more than $1 billion annually. Medicaid covers drugs for a wide variety of illnesses, from asthma to schizophrenia, and the cost per prescription ranges from $1 for aspirin to $1,600 for an HIV drug. So, for lawmakers trying to figure out how to meet Gov. Pat Quinn’s goal of cutting the $14 billion program by $2.7 billion, it makes sense to scrutinize the big-ticket cost of the pharmaceuticals…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty