Health Law and Policy Commons^™

Threats To Medicaid And Health Equity Intersection, Mary Crossley

Saint Louis University Journal of Health Law & Policy

The year 2017 proved politically tumultuous in the U.S. on many fronts, but perhaps none more so than health care. For enrollees in the Medicaid program, it was a “year of living precariously.” Long-promised Republican efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act also took aim at Medicaid, with proposals to fundamentally restructure the program and drastically cut its federal funding. These proposals provoked pushback from multiple fronts, including formal opposition from groups representing people with disabilities and people of color and individual protesters. Opposition by these groups should not have surprised the proponents of “reforming” Medicaid. Both people of ...

Putting The Brakes On Consumer Driven Medicaid: The Failures And Harms Of Healthy Indiana Plan (Hip) 2.0, Sidney D. Watson

Saint Louis University Journal of Health Law & Policy

In January 2015, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) granted Indiana a Section 1115 Demonstration Waiver to experiment with consumer driven Medicaid. The Healthy Indiana Plan (HIP) 2.0 combines a $2,500 high deductible with a Personal Responsibility and Wellness (POWER) Account, premiums, and copays. Described as “the most significant departure from traditional Medicaid ever approved,” Indiana claims that the POWER Account, the signature feature of HIP 2.0, is “similar to a health savings account (HSA)” and encourages members to be more cost-conscious consumers, helps familiarize members with how commercial health insurance works, and ...

Health Justice In The Age Of Alternative Facts And Tax Cuts: Value-Based Care, Medicaid Reform, And The Social Determinants Of Health, Elizabeth Tobin-Tyler

Saint Louis University Journal of Health Law & Policy

Some provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA) as well as regulatory policies under the Obama administration reflected the overwhelming evidence that to reduce health care costs, and to improve quality of care and population health, the social determinants of health (SDOH) must be addressed. These policies included funding for partnerships between public health agencies, community organizations, and health care institutions, promotion of value-based payment models that incentivize integrated health and social care delivery, and support for Medicaid program innovations that directly address social needs as part of health care. The Trump administration, through a ...

Managing Medicaid, Isaac D. Buck

Saint Louis University Journal of Health Law & Policy

In a steady but rapid march, managed care has come to Medicaid. Privatization has undoubtedly rebuilt the Medicaid landscape across America over the last three decades. Now, as managed care programs administer health care to three-in-four Medicaid beneficiaries nationwide, whether or not managed care is adequately managing America’s largest public insurance program has become an increasingly important question.

Of particular note have been states’ difficulties in constructing and organizing the bidding and selection processes of the private companies tasked with overseeing the administration of private Medicaid plans. Legal challenges to various states’ bid procurement processes have been well documented ...

Premiums And Section 1115 Waivers: What Cost Medicaid Expansion?, Sidney D. Watson

Saint Louis University Journal of Health Law & Policy

States reluctant to adopt the Affordable Care Act’s Medicaid expansion are demanding that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services grant them Section 1115 demonstration waivers that allow them to charge poor people premiums.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has yielded to these demands, granting five states waivers of long standing federal statutory protections that limit state discretion to impose premiums for Medicaid. These premium waivers present a fundamental problem of law because the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has no statutory authority to grant Section 1115 ...

Key Issues Facing Medicaid After The Affordable Care Act, Marybeth Musumeci

Saint Louis University Journal of Health Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Medicaid, Managed Care, And The Mission For The Poor, John V. Jacobi

Saint Louis University Journal of Health Law & Policy

Medicaid has financed care for the poor for five decades. During that time it has balanced two important missions: providing for the particular health needs of the poor, and mainstreaming care for the poor. These roles have been consistent as all insurance payors—public and private—have shifted away from passively funding fragmented care to actively supporting patient-centered coordinated care. But the health needs of the poor go beyond medical interventions; the health status of the poor depends on the provision of social services to address social determinants of health, including housing, nutrition, and employment training services. Unlike non-poor insureds ...

Pin The Tail On The Donkey: Beneficiary Enforcement Of The Medicaid Act Over Time, Jane Perkins

Saint Louis University Journal of Health Law & Policy

During the twentieth century, Congress enacted legislation designed to improve the lives of low-income Americans. A number of these laws were enacted by Congress pursuant to the Constitution’s Spending Clause, including the Medicaid Act, which entitles certain low-income individuals to publicly funded health insurance coverage. As enacted in 1965, the Medicaid Act did not include a provision authorizing the statute’s beneficiaries to bring private enforcement actions in court. Since the early 1970s, however, program beneficiaries relied upon the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause or, more frequently, 42 U.S.C. § 1983 for the cause of action allowing them to ...

On The Expansion Of “Welfare” And “Health” Under Medicaid, Laura D. Hermer

Saint Louis University Journal of Health Law & Policy

Medicaid was intended from its inception to provide financial access to health care for certain categories of impoverished Americans. While rooted in historical welfare programs, it was meant to afford the “deserving” poor access to the same sort of health care that other, wealthier Americans received. Yet despite this seemingly innocuous and laudable purpose, it has become a front in the political and social battles waged over the last several decades on the issues of welfare and the safety net. The latest battleground pits competing visions of Medicaid. One vision seeks to transform Medicaid from a health care program into ...

Rationalizing Home And Community-Based Services Under Medicaid, Laura D. Hermer

Saint Louis University Journal of Health Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Embracing Justice Roberts’ “New Medicaid”, Sidney D. Watson

Saint Louis University Journal of Health Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Medicaid’S Next Fifty Years: Aligning An Old Program With The New Normal, Sara Rosenbaum

Saint Louis University Journal of Health Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Sunshine And Accountability: The Pursuit Of Information On Quality In Medicaid Managed Care, Sarah Somers, Jane Perkins, Nhelp .

Saint Louis University Journal of Health Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Rethinking Medicaid In The New Normal, Sara Rosenbaum, Benjamin D. Sommers

Saint Louis University Journal of Health Law & Policy

No abstract provided.