The 110-page document includes recommendations on climate change, criminal justice, the economy, education, immigration and healthcare. The task force was formed after Sanders left the race and represent a compromise from candidates positions during the Democratic primary campaigns. For example, in the healthcare section, there is no...Arizona News
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of people unemployed has skyrocketed to more than 40 million, with April 2020 having the greatest net change in unemployment in the past decade. This has led to a significant increase in people eligible for Medicaid.
Arizona's Medicaid population has recently grown to 2 million and...National News
The Bipartisan Policy Center released a report this week which strongly suggested that the Medicaid program should make primary care an immediate priority for patients. The think tank directed the release at Congress, calling on them to support a comprehensive infrastructure to improve primary care and fully fund the Primary Care...National News
This week House Democrats released legislation that aims to improve the Affordable Care Act by adjusting key issues in the law and adding incentives to expand Medicaid in states that did not elect to do so.
This legislation comes before the June 25th vote and expected opening briefs in the Supreme Court case California v. Texas,...Arizona News
The Arizona Supreme Court ruled Monday that hospitals are not permitted to go after payments owed to a patient if they accept payments from the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS), the state's Medicaid program.
Sections of state law have previously authorized hospitals to impose liens on patients when AHCCCS...Top of The Day
Americans love anniversaries whether it is the birth of our nation on July 4th, our parents 50th, Pearl Harbor or 9/11. The year 2020 has a number of significant anniversaries of laws that have changed American society in uncountable ways.
On August 14, 1935, in the height of the Great Depression, President Franklin Delano...Arizona News
The 2021 federal budget proposal was unforgiving to the healthcare industry, which took a $1 trillion cut into Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) over the next decade.
Trump's budget, unveiled on Monday, outlines $4.8 trillion in spending, with industries such as defense getting a major slice of the pie. Medicare changes...Arizona News
Terms of a settlement agreement will allow Hacienda Healthcare to keep its state license and Medicaid contract under several conditions, including the mandatory hiring of a quality improvement expert.
In June 2019, the Arizona Department of Health Services issued a notice of intent to revoke the facility's license following the...White Papers, E books, Reports and more
A study published in JAMA Network Open last month found children enrolled in Medicaid who live in communities with a population health management program could experience far fewer hospital admissions and bed-days in hospitals per year.
The study sought to investigate a specific aspect of a shift in dependent health coverage across...Arizona News
Prior to the New Year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) approved Medicaid expansion with a work requirement in Utah, the latest in a long line of states tying expansion to such a requirement. In 2018, Utah voters approved Medicaid expansion, but it was kept from full implementation by state lawmakers who argued that...Arizona News
The Navajo Nation announced plans to create a "one-of-a-kind" managed care organization (MCO) under New Mexico's Medicaid program with Molina Healthcare. The tribe, spanning portions of northern Arizona, southern Utah and northern New Mexico, would be the first to launch a managed healthcare entity.
According to a September white...Arizona News
Last Thursday, the Trump Administration approved a request by the state of South Carolina to impose Medicaid work requirements. Nearly two dozen states have sought to implement Medicaid work requirements, but programs in three states have been set aside by the courts and Arizona suspended its AHCCCS Works program as other state court...CMS Rules
Hospitals are increasingly gobbling up physician practices and Medicare beneficiaries are paying the price.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) offers providers better reimbursement rates for services performed at physician practices. To take advantage of this, hospitals are buying such practices and...News
Last Wednesday, Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBS) posted a report finding that health will decline and costs will rapidly escalate for millennials over the next decade. This study draws a stark and surprising contrast with Generation X.
Analysts stated that the findings were both “interesting and concerning”
The...Arizona News
The Urban Institute released a highly anticipated study Oct. 15 regarding the viability and expenses of health insurance coverage reform plans proposed by Democratic Party candidates designed to move the country towards universal or near-universal coverage.
With the 2020 Democratic Primary and debates on healthcare reform heating up,...Arizona News
In a speech given on Monday at the Better Medicare Alliance 2019 Medicare Advantage Summit, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Seema Verma voiced concerns about the consequences a single-payer healthcare system including its impact on innovation with the elimination of private insurers.
Verma explicitly...Arizona Comings & Goings
Chris Taylor, CMS director of Medicaid and CHIP Services left his position for family reasons. He had been with the agency for just six months. He was previously led the Texas Health and Human Services Commission.National News
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) acknowledged the importance of social determinants of health in a Wednesday blog post encouraging healthcare providers to utilize new resources and data-driven approaches to addressing non-clinical factors.
The blog post, by Cara James, director of the CMS office of Minority...Arizona News
Health clinics in Safeway stores across Arizona have gone completely automated, combining artificial intelligence, augmented reality and telemedicine to offer healthcare services in under 30 minutes. Patients worried about an injury or potential illness provide their physical information to a computerized program armed with artificial...Arizona News
Two studies highlight the role of health plans in driving up out-of-pocket prescription drug costs for 2019 individual Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchange enrollees, while insurers continue to file lawsuits against the federal government for unpaid cost-sharing reduction payments (CSRs).
Multiple insurers filed status reports in...
