Massachusetts’ Demonstration to Integrate Care and Align Financing for Dual Eligible Beneficiaries October 1, 2012 Issue Brief Massachusetts is the first state to finalize a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to test CMS’s capitated financial alignment model for beneficiaries who are dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid, with enrollment beginning on April 1, 2013. Starting in 2013, CMS will…
National and State-By-State Impact of the 2012 House Republican Budget Plan for Medicaid October 1, 2012 Report This analysis of the House Budget Plan that was passed in 2012 finds that repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and converting Medicaid to a block grant would trigger significant decreases in federal Medicaid spending and could result in substantial reductions in enrollment and payments to providers compared to current…
Quantifying the Effects of Health Insurance Rate Review October 1, 2012 Report This report from the Kaiser Family Foundation analyzes the effect of government efforts to ensure that insurance premium increases are justifiable and provide value to consumers and small businesses. Rate review programs require insurers in the small group and individual markets to submit proposed rate increase requests to state or…
Medicaid Financing: An Overview of the Federal Medicaid Matching Rate (FMAP) September 30, 2012 Issue Brief Since its enactment in 1965, the Medicaid program has used the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) to determine the federal government’s share of the cost of covered services in state Medicaid programs. On average, the federal share has been 57 percent. Beginning in 2014, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) establishes…
Explaining the State Integrated Care and Financial Alignment Demonstrations for Dual Eligible Beneficiaries September 30, 2012 Issue Brief This paper provides an overview of the joint efforts of states and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to develop more integrated ways of paying for and delivering health care to the 9 million people who are eligible for both the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Dual eligible beneficiaries…
State Demonstrations to Integrate Care and Align Financing for Dual Eligible Beneficiaries: A Review of the 26 Proposals Submitted to CMS September 30, 2012 Report The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has proposed two models to align Medicare and Medicaid benefits and financing for dual eligible beneficiaries, one capitated model and one managed fee-for-service model. In the spring of 2012, 26 states submitted proposals to CMS seeking to test one or both of…
A Dose of Reality in the Virtual World of Health IT September 28, 2012 Event The Alliance for Health Reform hosted a September 28 briefing to discuss electronic health records (EHRs), and the progress of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act. Speakers explored such questions as: How does health information technology fit in the strategy for health care delivery transformation?…
How Small Business Owners Get Health Insurance September 28, 2012 Perspective As with any economic policy issue, there has been much discussion of how the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will affect small businesses. But, there’s been very little focus on how the health reform law will affect the owners of those businesses as people. As our recently released Employer Health Benefits…
The Affordable Care Act, the Supreme Court, and HIV: What Are the Implications? September 24, 2012 Report This brief explores key provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) for people with HIV, and the opportunities and challenges for using the law to improve HIV care, particularly in light of the Supreme Court’s 2012 ruling on the law.
Pulling it Together: How the ACA Can Help The Homeless September 21, 2012 Perspective Estimates are that there are approximately 630,000 people who are homeless on any given night in the U.S. — about two-thirds in shelters and one-third on the street or without real shelter. Several million people are estimated to experience homelessness over the course of a year. About two-thirds are individuals and the…