The Innovation Center: How Much Can It Improve Quality and Reduce Costs – and How Quickly? July 18, 2011 Event The new Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) seeks to test new health care payment and service delivery models that can potentially enhance quality of care for beneficiaries while reducing costs. How is the agency planning to administer its $10 billion in funding? What early projects is the center…
Pulling It Together: Writing Regulations July 18, 2011 Perspective Not since Geraldo Rivera revealed the secret contents of Al Capone’s vault on national TV in the mid-80s, or more recently, sports fans awaited the LeBron James “decision” about where he would play next, have we so anxiously awaited anything as much as the draft health exchange regulations just published…
What is a Mini-Med Plan? July 5, 2011 Perspective One of the early insurance market changes in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) phases out caps that some insurance plans impose on the annual dollar amount of benefits they will cover. Plans issued or renewed after September 23, 2010 cannot have annual limits of less than $750,000, and the threshold…
Explaining Health Reform: Uses of Express Lane Strategies to Promote Participation in Coverage July 1, 2011 Issue Brief Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), millions of uninsured adults and children will gain eligibility for Medicaid or health coverage through new health insurance Exchanges beginning in 2014. The law calls upon states to develop simple and streamlined processes for establishing, verifying, and updating eligibility for Medicaid,…
Kaiser Health Tracking Poll — July 2011 July 1, 2011 Poll Finding Health care, and particularly Medicare and Medicaid, continue to play a role in the national discussion over the federal budget deficit. In the midst of this debate, the latest Kaiser Health Tracking poll finds that Americans of all political stripes see a role for both spending reductions and tax increases…
Explaining Health Reform: The New Rules for Determining Income Under Medicaid in 2014 June 30, 2011 Issue Brief To provide individuals and families access to affordable, high-quality health care, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) expands Medicaid to cover low-income adults and children with incomes up to 133 percent of the poverty line. Millions of low-income parents, non-disabled adults who do not have dependent children (and…
Five Key Questions And Answers About Section 1115 Medicaid Waivers June 30, 2011 Issue Brief This issue brief provides an overview of what Section 1115 Medicaid waivers are, how they are approved and financed, how states have used them, and how they are impacted by health reform. For many years, Section 1115 waivers have been used by states to test new coverage approaches not otherwise…
June Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: Americans Still Divided on Health Reform Law June 30, 2011 Perspective In the latest Kaiser Health Tracking Poll, the public remains divided in their overall assessments of the ACA, with 42 percent holding a favorable view of the law and 46 percent an unfavorable one. This month’s poll finds Americans are somewhat more likely to think their own families, seniors as…
Pulling It Together: Changing the HIV Testing Message June 27, 2011 Perspective In 2006 the CDC began recommending routine HIV testing in health care settings for everyone between the ages of 13 and 64. Annual testing is recommended for people at highest risk. Our 2011 survey of Americans and HIV released last week — our eighth comprehensive survey of its kind — …
An Employer Health Benefits Balance Sheet June 17, 2011 Perspective There seems to be growing interest in the question of how many employers will keep offering coverage to their full-time employees once the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is fully implemented in 2014, or instead will choose to stop offering coverage and pay a penalty. While there is some good analysis…