Contributor: Mark Cherry
Topic: ACA, Medicaid, Exchanges

 While Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Senate have put forward Medicaid expansion plans that attempt to cover 1 million uninsured residents through private insurance, Florida House Republicans responded with Florida Health Choices Plus—not so much a proposal for reducing the state’s high uninsured rate, but rather a 46-page treatise on why private insurance is better than Medicaid.

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Contributor: Bill Melville
Topic: Medicaid, Exchanges

The Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS) does not get sentimental at contract time. For the next round of five-year contracts, it tossed two MCOs with long track records while bringing in a new participant with a long track record in California.

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Contributor: Ric Gross
Topic: Medicaid, managed care

When New Hampshire announced its intent to transition its mostly fee-for-service Medicaid program to a managed care system, it was touted as a pathway toward better care for beneficiaries and significant cost savings to the state. Since that 2012 announcement, it’s been more like the movie “Titanic”—but without the romance.
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Contributor: Mark Cherry
Topic: Medicaid, Florida

 With the rejection of Gov. Rick Scott’s Medicaid expansion by both chambers of the Florida Legislature, the measure has hit a stumbling block but is far from dead. The expansion could be revived with substantial revision, such as adoption of the Arkansas Medicaid model, where Medicaid beneficiaries will be given vouchers to buy plans on the health insurance exchange. But closer examination of the demands put forward by Senate leaders may show that the two sides are not that far apart. The rejections by the state GOP may mostly be bluster in order to score political points with their base, while signaling a narrow path for the expansion.

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Contributor: Bill Melville
Topic: Medicaid, Exchanges, ACA

Healthcare expansion could be in store for a new tagline: As goes Arkansas, so goes the nation.

Arkansas is responsible for the biggest Medicaid change since the U. S. Supreme Court made the healthcare reform law’s Medicaid expansion voluntary. The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services gave Arkansas approval to allow its Medicaid expansion population to buy private insurance through the exchange. Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe gauged the Republican-led legislature for what its members would find acceptable, and the private coverage option emerged.

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Contributor: Mark Cherry
Topic: Medicaid, ACA

 The decision last week by a Florida House panel to reject Medicaid eligibility expansion is basically a win/win, for the politicians involved at least. House members can go back to their conservative constituencies and say they stood up to the bogeyman of national socialized medicine, while Gov. Rick Scott comes out looking even more like a moderate for his 2014 reelection campaign, willing to go against his party for popular measures.

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Contributor: Sheri Sellmeyer
Topic: ACOs, ACA, Medicare, Medicaid

Accountable care organizations are a big, new experiment with few results to show yet, but one in Nashville threw a party this week to celebrate its early success metrics and announce a partnership with the state’s largest insurer.

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Contributor: Mark Cherry
Topic: Florida, Medicaid, states, governors, ACA, exchanges

 For healthcare industry watchers, the "will-they, won't-they" decisions of each state's Medicaid expansion decision have been as exciting as the NFL Draft or National Signing Day for college football. Rather than thinking about team needs, the real focus is on these quasi-celebrities that have the potential for greatness, whose single decision affects the lives of millions. The late Wednesday rumors of Florida Gov. Rick Scott's press conference to accept Medicaid expansion shivered through my Twitter feed, as if a highly touted recruit was about to announce his choice between Alabama and Ohio State.

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Contributor: Jane Dubose
Topic: Medicaid, medical homes

A recent report on patient engagement and a separate audit of North Carolina’s famed Medicaid medical home program illustrate just how difficult it is to reach solid conclusions on the value of patient-centered medical homes.
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Contributor: Ric Gross
Topic: ACA, exchanges, Medicaid

When a 2012 ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court and, ultimately, the re-election of President Barack Obama firmly cemented the future of the Affordable Care Act, Vermont was quickly moved into the list of states that were “well equipped” to move forward. After all, Vermont, a state with a generous healthcare safety net program, had already declared it was moving toward a single-payer healthcare system, with a goal of 2017 implementation.
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