
Health Plan Shake-Up Could Disrupt Coverage for Low-Income Californians
2022-09-30
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Almost 2 million of California’s poorest and most medically fragile residents may have to switch health insurers as a result of a new strategy by the state to improve care in its Medicaid program. A first-ever statewide contracting competition to participate in the program, known as Medi-Cal, required commercial managed-care…

Left Behind: Medicaid Patients Say Rides to Doctors Don’t Always Come
2022-01-12
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Tranisha Rockmore and her daughter Karisma waited at an Atlanta children’s hospital in July for their ride home. Karisma had been at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta to have her gastrostomy tube fixed, Rockmore said. The 4-year-old, who has several severe medical conditions, has insurance coverage from Medicaid, which provides transportation…

Local Pharmacists Fill Rx Void as Big Brands Pull Out of Rural Areas
2021-12-22
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Bill Mather, a pharmacist in the small Iowa city of Greenfield, wanted to make sure his neighbors could fill their prescriptions without driving long distances or enduring long wait times. So when pharmacy chains and big-box stores began expanding into rural markets, he sold his drugstore in 2007 to Pamida,…

Georgia Eyes New Medicaid Contract. But How Is the State Managing Managed Care?
2021-09-13
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Just before Frank Berry left his job as head of Georgia’s Medicaid agency this summer, he said the state “will be looking for the best bang for the buck” in its upcoming contract with private insurers to cover the state’s most vulnerable. But whether the state — and Medicaid patients…

California Set to Spend Billions on Curing Homelessness and Caring for ‘Whole Body’ Politic
2021-09-08
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OAKLAND, Calif. — Living unmedicated with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, Eugenia Hunter has a hard time recalling how long she’s been staying in the tent she calls home at the bustling intersection of San Pablo Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Way in Oakland’s hip Uptown neighborhood. Craft coffee shops…

Feds to Nix Work Requirements in Montana Medicaid Expansion Program
2021-08-05
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Federal health officials will likely reject Montana’s request to include work requirements for beneficiaries of its Medicaid expansion program, which insures 100,000 low-income Montana adults, state officials said. Three years after the Trump administration encouraged states to require proof that adult enrollees are working a certain number of hours or…