- Medicaid access made easier, By Catherine Candisky, June 6, 2012, Columbus Dispatch: “Ohio will be the 18th state to make it easier for poor children and pregnant women to get on-the-spot access to tax-funded health care. Under a pilot program starting next week, a handful of community health clinics and hospitals, including Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, will be authorized to do a quick screening and immediately grant eligibility for 60 days in the state Medicaid program. State officials say they plan to expand so-called ‘presumptive eligibility’ to clinics and hospitals statewide in about six months…”
- Ohio eases access for Medicaid-eligible patients, By Ann Sanner (AP), June 6, 2012, Coshocton Tribune: “State officials are hoping to more easily grant uninsured pregnant women and children in Ohio access to health care services under Medicaid, if they are likely to qualify for the program that provides coverage to the poor and disabled. A pilot program slated to start next week would allow certain health care providers in Ohio to presume the patient is eligible for Medicaid after an initial screening test. Children and expectant mothers would have to prove residency and provide other biographical details. The patients then could access the Medicaid-funded services immediately for 60 days while they apply for the program…”
Tag: Health clinics
Medical Home Network – Chicago, IL
Coordinated care program aims to save Medicaid millions, By By Peter Frost, April 20, 2012, Chicago Tribune: “On Easter, Keontae Barnes doubled over in pain, her back and stomach tightening so much she thought she was in labor. Nearly eight months pregnant with her second child, a girl, Barnes headed straight to the emergency department at Holy Cross Hospital in the Chicago Lawn neighborhood, just a few blocks from her home. After a quick – and costly – examination, doctors determined it was a false alarm; her pains were normal for women in the later stages of pregnancy. The next day, her primary care doctor at Chicago Family Health Center called, asking Barnes what happened and making sure she was OK. ‘I was shocked. I said, ‘How did you know?” Barnes said. ‘She told me to come in the next day, and she gave me her emergency pager and her email. She said if I ever have any questions or concerns, I can always get in touch, any time of day.’ Â About a week later, Barnes did just that. Instead of rushing to the ER with intense chest pains, she called her doctor. Acid reflux. A trip to Walgreens solved the problem in short order and saved the state’s Medicaid program and Holy Cross thousands of dollars…”
Affordable Care Act
- Medicaid could be in Supreme Court’s sights, By David G. Savage and Noam N. Levey, March 25, 2012, Los Angeles Times: “Ever since the Democratic Congress passed President Obama’s healthcare law, critics have focused their ire on the requirement that all Americans have health insurance beginning in 2014. But some legal experts believe – and progressives worry – the Supreme Court’s conservatives will instead target another mandate in the new law: the requirement that states expand the Medicaid rolls and provide subsidized healthcare for as many as 17 million more low-income people. On Wednesday, the third day of oral arguments on the law, 26 Republican-led states will argue that the federal pressure to expand Medicaid to all low-income Americans violates states’ rights…”
- Health care law puts free clinics at a crossroads, By Elana Gordon, March 25, 2012, National Public Radio: “Free health clinics have long been places people turn to when they don’t have health insurance or any money to pay for care. But the health law’s expansion of coverage puts free clinics in uncharted territory. While the law goes before the Supreme Court this week, health providers are already gearing up for a surge in patients with insurance. Around the country, hundreds of free clinics have been established over the past 50 years to treat patients like Patsy Duarte…”
- Michiganders divided on law reforming health care as Supreme Court takes up challenges, By Patricia Anstett and Robin Erb, March 25, 2012, Detroit Free Press: “On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court will open three days of hearings on the constitutionality of President Barack Obama’s sweeping health care reform law, one of the biggest cases before the high court in decades. The law, the signature piece of legislation in the president’s administration, will require most Americans without health insurance to buy coverage by 2014 or face penalties. It would also expand Medicaid, require coverage of pre-existing conditions, bar insurers from placing lifetime dollar limits on essential benefits and usher in dozens of other changes affecting everyone from hospitals to businesses to individuals. Some of the changes have already been implemented since the bill was signed into law on March 23, 2010…”
- 500,000 more in Michigan to be eligible for Medicaid coverage, By Robin Erb, March 26, 2012, Detroit Free Press: “A half-million more Michiganders will be eligible for Medicaid, the government-funded health program for poor people, when the most sweeping provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act take effect in 2014. Supporters of the law say covering more poor people is not just socially responsible, it ultimately saves money: Better care keeps chronic conditions in check. But opponents will argue this week to the U.S. Supreme Court that Congress is overstepping its bounds by pushing the expansion onto states, which will lose their federal Medicaid funds if eligibility is not expanded…”