- 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…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty