medicaid

The Ohio Department of Medicaid announced that Medicaid will begin covering more medications to help with drug withdrawal symptoms, beginning in January.

The number of people who gained insurance because of the Affordable Care Act, also called Obamacare, was the largest in rural areas and small towns across the country. And Kentucky saw one of the biggest gains in health insurance in its small towns and rural areas.

According to a new report out this week from the Center for Children and Families at Georgetown University, prior to 2008 about 35 percent of people nationwide didn’t have health insurance; now, only about 16 percent of people don’t have coverage.

Hundreds of mental health and addiction counselors could lose their jobs because the state is now requiring criminal background checks for people who provide Medicaid services. Some of those counselors and their employers who’d be affected by the new policy are asking state lawmakers to step in.

A federal court has dismissed a lawsuit filed by Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin against 16 Kentucky residents. Those residents had earlier sued Bevin in a separate court, asking a judge to declare Bevin’s Medicaid changes illegal.

Ohio Medicaid is telling its five managed care plans to sever their contracts with two pharmacy benefits managers, and to work up new deals by the beginning of the year.

An argument is brewing in the race to become Ohio’s next governor. Medicaid expansion has been a crucial topic in the campaign with both candidates, Mike DeWine and Rich Cordray, taking different approaches to the issue. One piece of the debate is over whether the expansion is sustainable. 

The debate over how the major party candidates for governor feel about Medicaid expansion has launched into an examination of exactly who are the 700,000 Ohioans in that expansion population – and who are not included.

A new report shows thousands of people across the Commonwealth lost their dental and vision coverage as well as transportation assistance in the recent Medicaid expansion rollbacks issued by Governor Matt Bevin’s administration.

Nearly half a million low-income Kentuckians lost their dental and vision insurance this month after a federal judge halted Kentucky’s Medicaid waiver program.

A federal judge could decide this week if Kentucky can move forward with changes to its Medicaid program. 

Kentucky was the first state in the nation to receive a waiver from U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.  The waiver sought by Governor Matt Bevin’s administration would require able-bodied adults to work or volunteer to maintain their Medicaid coverage.  Enrollees would also pay small premiums and face lockout periods for failing to renew their benefits on time.

A plan to exempt some Ohio counties from proposed new work requirements for Medicaid recipients is coming under fire from a Cleveland think tank.

Many people who receive Medicaid in Ohio could soon have to work at least 20 hours a week to receive the government health insurance. The Ohio Department of Medicaid is waiting for federal approval of the plan.

But under the state’s proposal, people in counties with high unemployment would fall under a special exemption.

The state has submitted its application to the federal government for permission to impose work requirements on 36,000 Ohio Medicaid recipients.