Virginia Lawmakers Add Tougher Medicaid Work Requirements In Attempt To Reach Agreement On Budget

The Associated Press:
House Panel OKs Bill With Medicaid Work Requirement Change

A committee of Virginia lawmakers has advanced a budget plan expanding Medicaid but tightening part of a work requirement plan House lawmakers approved earlier this year. The House Appropriations Committee approved two bills on bipartisan votes Friday, sending them to the full chamber.Lawmakers are taking another stab at passing a budget after attempts during the regular session ended in a stalemate over disagreement about Medicaid expansion. A final deal could be weeks away. (4/13)

The Washington Post:
Va. House Committee Tries Again For Medicaid Expansion, With Tougher Work Rules

On Friday, the committee passed essentially the same House budget that died in March — but with a handful of amendments meant to make expansion more palatable to the Senate. Two Republicans in that chamber have said they would team up with Democrats on Medicaid under certain conditions. After the meeting, House Appropriations Committee Chairman S. Chris Jones (R-Suffolk) declined to say whether he thought the plan would satisfy the two senators, Emmett W. Hanger (Augusta) and Frank W. Wagner (Virginia Beach). (Vozzella, 4/13)

Denver Post:
To Combat Rising Health Care Costs, Should Colorado Let People Buy Into Medicaid? 

Medicaid, the nation’s joint federal-state health insurance program for the poor, is often described as providing a safety net — something to save the neediest people from disaster. But, as health insurance costs spiral rapidly upward, Colorado lawmakers and health care advocates increasingly say that it is the entire state that is facing a crisis. So, some of them are now proposing a radical, potentially first-in-the-nation idea: Why not let anyone buy their way into Medicaid, regardless of income? (Ingold, 4/15)

Nashville Tennessean:
Can Tennessee Expand Health Care For Working Poor? Haslam Asks Behind Closed Doors

From the outside, lawmakers’ entering [Gov. Bill] Haslam’s office may have looked innocuous. But inside, the big idea the governor floated would have defined his legacy. Haslam asked if they would support extending federally funded health coverage to hundreds of thousands of low-income Tennesseans. The head of the state Medicaid program had met in late March with the federal Medicaid administrator to talk about possibly expanding coverage. (Ebert and Boucher, 4/13)

The Associated Press:
State Supreme Court Orders Medicaid To Pay $2M To Hospitals

The Mississippi Supreme Court is ordering the state’s Medicaid program to pay back $2 million to 12 hospitals, saying the agency improperly skimped on reimbursement for services. The unanimous Thursday decision upholds a suit the hospitals filed saying the state-federal health insurance program had illegally changed its payment formula for radiology and laboratory services. (4/15)

Health News Florida:
AIDS Foundation Protests Over Medicaid Contracting

The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration’s headquarters in Tallahassee were the site Thursday of the third demonstration in as many days by supporters of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation.A group of about 30 people from Northwest Florida gathered to protest the state’s decision to block the nation’s largest nonprofit AIDS health-care provider from South Florida’s Medicaid managed-care market. (4/13)

PBS NewsHour:
Mainers Voted To Expand Medicaid Last Year. Could These States Be Next?

Republicans in Congress may have relented on their attempts to repeal the entire Affordable Care Act, but the battle has shifted to states. Citizens in Idaho, Utah, Missouri and Nebraska have taken Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act into their own hands via ballot initiative campaigns, hoping to force statewide votes to either adopt or reject expansion this coming November. (4/13)

NPR:
New Medicaid Requirements Signals Trump Crackdown On Public Assistance Programs

Michel Martin speaks to Diane Rowland from The Kaiser Family Foundation about a new order from President Trump to establish work requirements for recipients of Medicaid and other federal benefits. (4/15)