The State of Medicaid in the States

by Clive Riddle, November 8, 2017 Mark Farrah Associates has just released their Mid-Year 2017 Medicaid Market and Enrollment Trends report which cites national Medicaid coverage was “74.3 million as of June 2017. This represents approximately 17.5 million more covered lives, a 31% increase, when compared to the population of Medicaid recipients prior to Affordable Care Act (ACA) implementation.” They fix Medicaid managed care enrollment nationally at 48.6 million, and tell us “total year-over-year managed Medicaid grew by only 187,000 members, a substantial difference from the 3.6 million increase between 2Q15 and 2Q16. Most of the top five managed care companies– Centene, Anthem, UnitedHealth, Molina and Wellcare – did however, experience enrollment increases. Among the leaders, Centene commanded 12% of the Medicaid market share as of second quarter 2016, enrolling approximately 6 million members. Anthem and UnitedHealth increased year-over-year membership with both attaining 11% market share. Molina and WellCare rounded out the top five Medicaid managed care leaders accounting for 7 and 5 percent market share, respectively. These top five Medicaid companies control 45% of the overall Medicaid Managed Care market.” Meanwhile, CMS Administrator Seema Verma this week gave a major speech discussing “her vision for the future of Medicaid and unveiled new CMS policies that encourage states to propose innovative Medicaid reforms, reduce federal regulatory burdens, increase efficiency, and promote transparency and accountability.” CMS reports that Verma emphasized “her commitment to ‘turn the page in the Medicaid program’ by giving states more freedom to design innovative programs that achieve positive results for the people they serve and pledged to remove impediments that get in the way of states achieving this goal. She announced several new policies and initiatives that break down the barriers that prevent state innovation and improvement of Medicaid beneficiary health outcomes.” CMS touts that they have published new public website content that reflects “CMS’s willingness to work with state officials requesting flexibility to continue to provide high quality services to their Medicaid beneficiaries, support upward mobility and independence, and advance innovative delivery system and payment models.” Veema emphasized their “commitment to considering proposals that would give states more flexibility to engage with their working-age, able-bodied citizens on Medicaid through demonstrations that will help them rise out of poverty.”  In shorthand, this means that states have a path to impose work requirements on applicable Medicaid beneficiaries and deny continued coverage for those that do not comply.  Other changes CMS shares include: ·         Allowing states to request approval for certain 1115 demonstrations for up to 10 years; ·         Providing for states to more easily pursue “fast track” federal review ·         Reducing certain state 1115 reporting requirements; ·         Expediting SPA and 1915 waiver efforts through a streamlined process and by participating in a new “within 15-day” initial review call with CMS officials. ·         Developing “Scorecards that will provide greater transparency and accountability of the Medicaid program by tracking and publishing state and federal Medicaid outcomes.” Meanwhile, the question of the day is what to make of the Maine election results this week approving Medicaid expansion, with their Governor subsequently stating he will block implementation.