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  • Express Lane Eligibility Efforts: Lessons Learned from Early State Cross-Program Enrollment Initiatives

    Issue Brief

    The Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 (CHIPRA) provides states new options to reach and enroll eligible but uninsured low-income children into Medicaid and CHIP. The law's Express Lane Eligibility (ELE) provisions enable state Medicaid and CHIP agencies to identify, enroll and recertify children by relying on eligibility findings from other programs, such as Head Start or Food Stamps, rather than having to re-analyze eligibility under their own rules. Further, CHIPRA authorizes greater…

  • Federal Support for Health Information Technology in Medicaid: Key Provisions in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

    Issue Brief

    The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) includes an unprecedented nearly $47 billion federal investment in health information technology initiatives. This e-health snapshot provides an overview of the health information technology provisions in the law that have direct implications for Medicaid. Health Information Technology (HIT) offers the promise of potential improvements in quality of care as well as increased efficiencies in care and cost savings. Medicaid, which covers nearly 60 million people, can…

  • Health Coverage and Expenses: Impact on Older Women’s Economic Well-Being

    Issue Brief

    In this article in the Journal of Women, Politics & Policy, researchers from the Kaiser Family Foundation examine how health issues that women face over the course of their lives, as well as policies that shape Medicare, Medicaid and other supplemental coverage, can affect retired women's economic well-being. They found that women's health care expenses were higher than men's; that older women paid for a greater share of their total spending out of pocket and that…

  • Rewarding Healthy Behaviors: Variation in Health Risk Across Industries Among American Workers

    Issue Brief

    Faced with an unsustainable growth in health care costs, both employers and policymakers have begun to consider the potential savings that might be achieved by investments in health promotion and better access to preventive care. There has also been public discussion about the potential of building financial incentives for healthy behaviors and the use of prevention services into health plans. Creating the right incentives is a challenge however, because experience is so limited and healthy…

  • Health Reform Opportunities: Improving Policy for Dual Eligibles

    Issue Brief

    As the nation considers national health reform, this brief provides an overview of opportunities to realign federal and state policy for the dual eligibles to promote a more rational, cost-efficient system for 9 million of the poorest, sickest and highest-cost people covered by both Medicaid and Medicare. Navigating two programs with different rules and financing incentives is complex for beneficiaries and providers, impedes efforts to improve care coordination and results in cost-shifting between programs that…

  • Emergency Departments Under Growing Pressure

    Issue Brief

    This issue brief relies on interviews with practicing clinicians to explore the impact of the recession on hospital emergency departments that are under growing pressure as patient volume increases, health coverage declines and medical costs present new challenges to unemployed families. Issue Brief (.pdf)

  • The Effects of the Economic Recession on Communities of Color

    Issue Brief

    This issue brief examines some of the challenges associated with employment, daily life and access to health care among racial minorities, who tend to be disproportionately affected by many of the consequences of economic hard times. High unemployment rates, coupled with vast differences in savings and wealth, have left many individuals struggling to afford such basic necessities as housing and food, and have resulted in lapses in health coverage and difficulties paying for needed medical…

  • Explaining Health Care Reform: How Might a Reform Plan Be Financed?

    Issue Brief

    One of the key challenges in enacting a health care reform plan is how to finance it among government, employers, and individuals. Of particular concern to policymakers is what effect a health reform plan would have on government spending and the federal budget. President Obama and Congressional leaders have said that any health reform plan should not add to the budget deficit over a 10 year period. This brief explains the likely sources of added…

  • CHIP TIPS: New Federal Funding Available to Cover Immigrant Children and Pregnant Women

    Issue Brief

    This brief examines a new option under the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009 that allows states to receive federal funds for providing Medicaid and CHIP coverage to lawfully residing immigrant children and pregnant women regardless of when they entered the country. Previously, states had been prohibited from using federal Medicaid or CHIP funds to cover legal immigrants who had been in the country fewer than five years. The brief, the fifth installment…

  • Money Follows the Person: An Early Implementation Snapshot

    Issue Brief

    This issue brief examines the early successes and challenges of the Money Follows the Person Demonstration (MFP), a Medicaid initiative enacted into law in 2006 that gives states enhanced federal support to balance their Medicaid long-term care programs by providing more services in the community and fewer in institutional settings. A 2008 Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured survey of 29 states receiving MFP grants turned up several key findings, including that several hundred…