Medicaid

A study about the impact of the 2008 Oregon Medicaid expansion on hospital emergency department visits doesn’t actually tell us much about the Affordable Care Act, consultant Paul Gionfriddo writes at his website, Our Health Policy Matters. Gionfriddo details why he thinks the study is more history than news.

People filling out insurance applications on the federal marketplace may learn they're eligible for Medicaid and their information is being sent to state officials to sign them up. However, states are getting unusable information because of technical problems that continue to plague the website.

State Sen. Joe Negron, R-Negron, said he doesn’t expect there to be any movement on the issue of Medicaid expansion during the upcoming session, the Florida Current reports. Negron, who chairs the Senate Appropriations committee, tried last session to pass a private-sector version of Medicaid expansion that accepted federal money to cover the low-income uninsured.

A University of Florida College of Pharmacy professor is looking at the potentially harmful combination of psychotropic drugs used to treat children on the state’s Medicaid program.

A South Florida company that unsuccessfully bid for Medicaid managed care contracts is questioning how a company with financial ties to Florida Blue ended up with contracts in eight of the 11 regions, the Florida Times-Union reports (paywall alert).

A judge has ruled that a Daytona Beach hospital violated the federal Stark Law, which bars physicians from getting extra cash from patient referrals through kickbacks, split fees and other under-the-table arrangements, the Orlando Sentinel reports.

The case, scheduled to go to trial in March, stems from a 2009 lawsuit filed by whistleblower Elin Baklid-Kunz, a former compliance officer for Halifax Hospital.  Hospital officials have denied wrongdoing.

From one end of Florida to the other, calls for Florida House leaders to accept $51 billion in Affordable Care Act funds to expand Medicaid to cover the state's low-income uninsured were renewed on Wednesday. Even Gov. Scott started flirting with Obamacare again. But the man who said no to the money before -- House Speaker Will Weatherford -- is still saying no.

Here's a quick look at the action:

State Rep. Mark Pafford, the incoming leader of Florida House Democrats, says he will continue to press the issue of Medicaid expansion during the upcoming legislative session, the Florida Current reports. Republicans in the Florida House blocked  Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act during the 2013 session.

Tampa-based WellCare Health Plans Inc. is planning to borrow $600 million, the Tampa Bay Business Journal reports. The company, which provides managed care services for Medicaid and Medicare health plans, will issue senior notes in a public offering.

A majority of physicians who responded to a Florida Medical Association survey this month said they support expanding the Medicaid program to cover more indigent and working-poor adults, FMA reported Tuesday. 

But that's not the group's number-one goal for the coming legislative session, so it's unclear whether FMA will lobby for it.

Months after Florida House Republican leaders rejected federal money to expand health coverage for the low-income uninsured, a state agency will ask them to request money under a different Medicaid bucket to give to hospitals for charity care. 

This bucket, called the “Low Income Pool,” would be expanded from $1.4 billion a year to about $3 billion under the Agency for Health Care Administration’s proposal.

UnitedHealthcare is triggering a furor in southwest Florida by dropping 300 physicians from its AARP/Medicare Complete HMO network, according to the Fort Myers News-Press.

More than half of Florida’s 115,000 fast-food workers receive some form of public assistance because their incomes are so low and they have few benefits, according to a study by the University of California-Berkeley. The Palm Beach Post reports the assistance, including Medicaid and food stamps, costs Florida taxpayers $348 million a year. 

Florida hospitals had strong profits last year, according to an analyst's report, and so did its HMOs, especially those that specialize in Medicare patients.