WICS Live: Around the States

Texas: Harris County Unveils TexHealth Harris County 3-Share Plan. Officials in Harris County, which includes Houston and Sugar Land, unveiled a new small business insurance option October 20th. Harris County alone has over 1 million uninsured residents; Texas has the nation’s largest uninsured rate. The 3-Share Plan, which hopes to make a small dent in the uninsured rate, will divide monthly premiums among the employer, employee, and a subsidy fund. In the program’s first two years, a $5.5 million subsidy pool will make insurance coverage available to 5,000 uninsured workers. Workers making less than $16 an hour would pay 17% of their monthly premiums. Workers making more would split the premium 50-50 with employers. Read more!

WICS Live: Around the States

Minnesota: Governor Proposes Interstate Insurance Compact. In a letter to other governors October 21st, Governor Tim Pawlenty (R) asked his counterparts to join him in establishing an interstate health insurance compact that would call for standards in the health care market, enabling insurers to compete with one another across state boards. According to Pawlenty's letter, the proposed compact would allow states to share common regulatory standards, thereby facilitating the purchase of health insurance across state lines. It would also allow more insurers to do business in states would both increase competition and choice. The proposal would need Congressional consent and would also likely need legislative approval in Minnesota, since state law now requires health care insurers doing business in the state to be non-profit. Read more!

WICS Live: Around the States

Pennsylvania: Budget Stalemate Is Finally Over. After 101 days without a state budget, Governor Ed Rendell (D) and lawmakers reached a budget agreement, with Rendell signing the state’s $27.8 billion budget Friday, October 9th. The measure cuts overall spending by more than 1 percent and relies on nearly $500 million in new taxes on sales of cigarettes, little cigars and business taxes. The bill does not raise sales or income taxes, the state’s two biggest sources of revenue. Read more!

New York: 500 Show Up At Hearing to Protest More Proposed Budget Cuts. The hearing, which was held by the State Senate in Brookhaven, Long Island, was the second in a series to gauge public reaction to mid-year budget cuts proposed by Governor David Paterson (D) to close a current $3 billion budget gap and a projected $2 billion deficit next year. The majority of the attendees at the 5 ½ hour meeting were people with disabilities and disability advocates, who decried Paterson’s proposal to eliminate $65 million in community services and education programs so that individuals with disabilities can live independently. Read more!

New Mexico: Special Legislative Session Ends with Lawmakers Approving 7.6% Cut for All Agencies Under Governor’s Control. The special session was called to address a $650 million revenue shortfall in the state budget. The state Health Department could lose about $38 million in state funding—and an additional $155 million in Federal funding—if Governor Bill Richardson (D) signs the measure. Richardson must decide whether to sign the measure by November 12th. If enacted, cuts will be required for Medicaid, including mental health and substance abuse services for low-income New Mexicans and medical services for uninsured children and individuals with developmental disabilities. Read more!

WICS Live: Around the States

Missouri: Governor Cuts Additional $204M from State Budget. The cuts, made by Governor Jay Nixon (D) on Wednesday, include cuts to some Medicaid providers. The governor’s budget director said the state will cut $32.5 million from Medicaid, some of which will come from reduced payments to providers, and other cost-saving measures, such as more reliance on generic prescription drugs. Provider payments will only be reduced for services where the state’s reimbursement rate is higher than that of Federal rate. Read more!

WICS Live: Around the States

Colorado: Governor Outlines Second Rounds of Budget Cuts. Governor Bill Ritter (D) October 28th laid out his plan to cut another $286 million from the state budget, including reductions in Medicaid provider rates and more cuts to higher education. The governor cut $3.1 million from Medicaid providers, reducing rates by 1%, bringing this year's total cuts to the program to 4.5%. The cuts come on top of the $1.8 billion budget shortfall the state has already covered over the past year. The governor’s office warned that more cuts may be ahead, before the state’s budget year ends in June. State workers have also been ordered to take 4 additional furlough days in an effort to save money. Ritter this week will present his budget for the next fiscal year, and even deeper cuts are expected. The governor’s budget director said additional cuts are needed because of higher-than-expected Medicaid enrollment growth and previous cuts that Ritter backed away from—including $4.5 million he tried to cut for aid to low-income residents and people with disabilities. Read more!

WICS Live: Around the States

Washington: State Agrees to Restore In-Home Supports to Children with Disabilities Enrolled in Medicaid. According to a settlement agreement, the state has agreed to restore services to 4,000 children with disabilities. The settlement comes after a lawsuit was filed to prevent the state from cutting services as of July 1st; the cuts were directed by the Legislature to manage a budget deficit for the 2009-2011 biennium budget. The state is still in discussions with representatives of adults with disabilities. As of October 19th, plaintiffs and representatives from the Department of Social and Health Services in hopes of submitting a consent decree for Federal court approval. Another case involving Medicaid cuts has been appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit after a Federal District Court refused to grant a preliminary injunction for beneficiaries and family members providing in-home supports as employees of other agencies. Read more!

WICS Live: Around the States Blog

North Carolina: Budget Cuts Mean Medicaid Program Will Lose $1.5 Billion. The state continues to squeeze savings out of Medicaid program, cutting provider rates, but state officials are warning that service cuts and job losses in health care could be looming. About 11,000 more people than estimated were enrolled in Medicaid during the months of August and September, increasing the pressure on the state budget. Read more!

WICS Live: Around the States

New York: State Will Reimburse Pharmacies that Provide H1N1, Seasonal Flu Vaccine to Medicaid Fee-for-Service Beneficiaries. It is the first time Medicaid-enrolled pharmacies will provide flu shots since a 2008 law took effect, permitting pharmacist to administer the shots. Medicaid recipients enrolled in managed care plans have access to immunizations through their providers. Read more!

WICS Live: Around the States

Louisiana: State to Audit Medicaid Providers to Root out Fraud and Abuse. The state Department of Health and Hospitals announced October 29th that it will roll out a new effort to combat fraud in the state’s Medicaid program by auditing more than 700 private firms that provide in-home services for the elderly and people with disabilities. The audits come in the wake of years of growth in the state’s home and community-based services; in the last 7 years, costs grew by 174% and now cost the state $673 million annually. Read more!

WICS Live: Around the States

Florida: State Previews First Phase of Electronic Health Records. The state Agency for Health Care Administration (ACHA)October 28th unveiled the MyFlorida Health eBook and eBaby Book, making the state the first in the nation to allow Medicaid recipients to access personal health records over the Internet. Within the next month, 2.6 million Medicaid beneficiaries will be able to access their health records and enter and track their health information by using their Medicaid ID number. Medicaid recipients also will be able to track family histories, print them, and share the information with health care providers, AHCA said. Read more!

WICS Live: Around the States

California: Statewide Study Finds Federal Citizenship Requirement Imposes Significant Burden on Counties.The study, conducted by the California Endowment and California Healthcare Foundation, found that the citizenship requirement made it difficult for most individuals, including children over age 16 and people born outside the state, to access Medicaid because they had difficulty finding birth certificates, driver’s licenses, and other acceptable documentation. Officials reported that no cases of existing Medicaid recipients had previously claimed false citizenship. At the same time, all 58 counties in the state reported increased workloads, backlogs, and costs to implement the citizenship verification requirement. Read more!

WICS Live: Around the States

California: State Prevented From Implementing November 1st Cuts to In-Home Support Services. A Federal judge October 19th issued a preliminary injunction to prevent the state from implementing planned cuts to an estimated 130,000 children and adults with disabilities and the elderly because of the substantial harm that would result. U.S. District Court Judge Claudia Wilken ruled that the plaintiffs in the class action suit were likely to show at trial that the service cuts, resulting for the recent state budget, violate Federal law. Read more!

New ANCOR Website

As you may have noticed, ANCOR unveiled a new website today. In addition to being “easy on the eyes,” we hope information posted in our National Issues section will be easier to find. To get to the National Issues page, click on “National Issues” on the left side of ANCOR’s new homepage. Once you click on “National Issues” you will see a tab listing all of the issues on which ANCOR’s Government Relations updates you on the right hand side of the page. Looking for ANCOR’s Action Center? To get there, simply click on the “Action Center” tab on ANCOR’s home page. If you have any questions or need help locating areas of interest on our new site, please contact Tony Yu. Read more!

CLASS Act Not a “Done Deal” in Senate Health Reform Proposal

ANCOR staff has been meeting with key Senate offices all this week to ensure the inclusion of the CLASS Act in the Senate health reform bill. Although the House bill includes the CLASS Act provisions, key Senators have been reluctant to include the CLASS Act as part of the merged Senate Finance and HELP committee bill.If you have not reached out to your Senators yet to support ANCOR’s efforts to get these provisions in the merged Senate bill, it’s not too late. Use ANCOR’s Action Alert to get word to your Senators that the CLASS Act must be in the final Senate bill.

Remember, the CLASS Act would 1) provide a new private source of funding for ANCOR providers of long term supports and services; 2) reduce federal deficit by 74 billion over 10 years; and 3) produce a savings to Medicaid of nearly 2 billion in first five years of implementation.

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Senate Committee Holds Hearing on Disabled and Elderly Housing Issues

Yesterday, the Senate Banking Committee’s subcommittee on Housing, Transportation, and Community Development held a hearing on Modernizing Affordable Housing for Seniors and People with Disabilities. Witnesses discussed the Section 811 reform bill and the Section 202 elderly housing reform bill. ANCOR supports the Section 811 reform bill, the Frank Melville Supportive Housing Investment Act of 2009 (S. 1481) and encourages ANCOR members to ask their Senators to co-sponsor this bill. The identical companion bill, H.R. 1675, passed in the House by unanimous consent this summer.

Chairman Dodd (D-CT) stated strong support for the Melville bill and committed to move it through the Committee and to the floor quickly. In addition to Chairman Menendez (D-NJ), Senators Johanns (R-NE) and Kohl (D-WI) attended.

Click here to view the hearing.

Click here to read witness testimony.

Click here for more information on the Frank Melville Supportive Housing Investment Act of 2009.
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Senate Health Reform Bill Sent to CBO for Score

Cost estimates for a Senate health care reform bill will likely not be available for another week and a half, pushing back Senate Democratic leadership’s plan to begin debating the bill on the floor sometime next week. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) anticipates having to resubmit some portions of the measure before bringing it to the floor. That means a final bill is unlikely to be ready for floor action prior to the week of November 9th.

That timeline could complicate Reid's ability to finish debate before Thanksgiving, because the Veterans Day holiday on Nov. 11 falls on a Wednesday and the Senate is not expected to be in session that day or the remainder of that week. That would leave just one full week of floor debate on the bill before Thanksgiving on Nov. 26.

Senate Democratic Conference Vice Chairman Charles Schumer (D-NY) said he believes the CBO scoring holdup will not prevent Congress from sending a bill to the president before the end of the year.

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House Health Reform Bill Official CBO Score is $1.055 Trillion; Possible Floor Consideration Late Next Week

The House Democrats' health care plan would cover 36 million more Americans at a cost of $1.055 trillion over the next decade, while reducing the federal deficit overall by $104 billion, according to a preliminary Congressional Budget Office score released late Thursday.

The House bill contains the ANCOR supported CLASS Act, which would 1) provide a new private source of funding for ANCOR providers of long term supports and services; 2) reduce federal deficit by 74 billion over 10 years; and 3) produce a savings to Medicaid of nearly 2 billion in first five years of implementation.

The bill could come to the floor for consideration as early as November 5, House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer said Thursday night. A manager’s amendment will be available as soon as November 2, Hoyer added.

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NEWS FLASH: House Includes $23.5 Billion to Extend the ARRA FMAP Increase Through 2011 in Health Reform Bill

The Senate does not have this provision at this time. Details to follow early next week. Read more!