Health Affairs

On February 22, 2012, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued two final regulations implementing sections of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The two regulations effectuate 1) an ACA provision that will offer the states flexibility in implementing key ACA requirements beginning in 2017, and 2) an ACA amendment to a section of... Read the rest of this entry »

Although public and media attention has been focused on the Affordable Care Act litigation pending in the Supreme Court, the Court’s February 22 decision in Douglas v. Independent Living Center is also of great importance.  The decision involved lawsuits brought by Medicaid providers and recipients claiming that California Medicaid payment cuts violated federal law. Medicaid... Read the rest of this entry »

If you haven’t already, take a look at the latest Health Wonk Review posted last week at the Healthcare Economist. Jason Shafrin presents a stellar line-up of health policy blogging. He includes Tim Jost’s Health Affairs Blog post on the Supreme Court briefs filed by the states challenging the Affordable Care Act; Tim examines the... Read the rest of this entry »

Briefs continue to be filed at a furious pace in the Affordable Care Act Supreme Court litigation.  On January 6, the federal government led off with its brief challenging the decision of the Eleventh Circuit federal court of appeals that the ACA’s minimum coverage requirement (individual mandate) is unconstitutional.  The states and the National Federation... Read the rest of this entry »

Medicaid, the nation’s largest public health insurance program, provides health coverage for low-income people, or about one in five Americans. The program will also play a central role in expanding insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act. However, recent concerns about federal budget deficits and the fiscal pressures on states have generated new proposals to... Read the rest of this entry »

On January 10th, the states filed their latest arguments in their bid to have the ACA’s Medicaid expansion declared an unconstitutional coercion.  Following an effort to piece together a coercion doctrine from dicta found in a handful of Supreme Court cases, the states assert that the “[t]he ACA is Premised on the Understanding that It... Read the rest of this entry »

One of the priorities established in the Affordable Care Act is providing better, more efficient care to the “dual eligibles,” low-income seniors enrolled in both Medicare and Medicaid. AcademyHealth’s 2012 National Health Policy Conference (NHPC) will feature a panel on this topic, which is crucial to the nation’s goal of restraining health care cost growth... Read the rest of this entry »

An extraordinary slowing of the growth in use of health care goods and services contributed to a second year of slow health spending growth in 2010, federal analysts reported in the January issue of Health Affairs. Persistently high unemployment, a substantial loss of private health insurance coverage, lower median household income, and the burden of... Read the rest of this entry »

Among the issues on which the United States Supreme Court has agreed to hear oral arguments in the Affordable Care Act cases is the question of whether its minimum Medicaid coverage requirements are constitutional. The states have based their appeal on a legal theory known as the “coercion doctrine.”  Citing a long history of precedents,... Read the rest of this entry »

As 2011 comes to a close, we draw ever closer to January 1, 2014, the day when the most significant changes wrought by the Affordable Care Act will come into effect.  Indeed, we are only weeks away from the halfway point between March, 2010, when the ACA was signed into law and October, 2013, the... Read the rest of this entry »

Attend AcademyHealth’s National Health Policy Conference (NHPC) to hear directly from state policymakers, analysts, and practitioners about how they are facing those challenges and seizing new opportunities in a post-ACA environment. The 2012 meeting agenda features a special focus on states: Challenges of ACA Implementation at the State Level Representatives from some of the agencies... Read the rest of this entry »

The effort to cut federal budget deficits resembles nothing so much as the old movie serials in which each week the hero ran a gantlet of perils the last of which threatened imminent death or dismemberment.  Seven days later, the intrepid adventurer would somehow escape unscathed, only to repeat the cycle. The courageous crusader of... Read the rest of this entry »

Editor’s note: A newly updated Health Policy Brief from Health Affairs and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation provides more information on the CLASS Act and where we stand now regarding the need to provide affordable coverage for long-term services and supports. The announcement by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius that the Community... Read the rest of this entry »

Today, November 14, 2011, the Supreme Court decided to review a decision of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals striking down the minimum coverage requirement of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) as unconstitutional.  The case will probably be argued before the Court in March and decided in the early summer. Procedurally, the Court “granted certiorari.” ... Read the rest of this entry »

It was recently reported that a study in the Annals of Internal Medicine found, contrary to expectations, that demands on safety-net providers in Massachusetts have actually increased as a result of moving to a full coverage model.  While the study concludes that patients choose to use safety-net providers because of affordability and convenience, the underlying... Read the rest of this entry »

Tomorrow, Tuesday, November 8, Health Affairs will release its November 2011 issue, “Linking Community Development & Health.”  The issue explores the connection between improving the health of populations and undertaking efforts to raise incomes, employment and overall economic activity in low-income communities.  In addition to the community health material, the issue features a number of... Read the rest of this entry »

Two studies, released last week as Health Affairs Web First articles, examine some of the ramifications of the Affordable Care Act. One, by John Sheils and Randall Haught, of the Lewin Group, estimates that if the individual mandate were eliminated, the Affordable Care Act would still cover some 23 million previously uninsured US residents, indicating... Read the rest of this entry »

Editor’s note: See additional posts on the Medicare Shared Savings Program Final Rule  and related delivery system and payment reform initiatives by Debra Ness and William Kramer, Lawrence Casalino and Stephen Shortell,  Douglas Hastings, and Mark McClellan and Elliott Fisher. Innovation has revolutionized medicine.  Technology enables us to peer into the depths of the human body to... Read the rest of this entry »

Editor’s Note: Can Medicaid enrollees and providers sue a state in federal court for failing to pay provider reimbursement rates allegedly required by federal law? In very brief summary, this is the question before the Supreme Court in Douglas v Independent Living Center of Southern California. Below, Sara Rosenbaum offers her analysis and viewpoint regarding... Read the rest of this entry »

Wednesday, September 28 was a busy day at the Supreme Court clerk’s office. It had been widely expected that there would be a major pleading filed with the clerk in an Affordable Care Act challenge, as the response of the United States to a certiorari petition in the Sixth Circuit’s Thomas More case, which had... Read the rest of this entry »