Medicaid

A bill expanding coverage of and access to telemedicine passed the Senate this week. The measure will cover Hoosiers on Medicaid who get healthcare through telemedicine practices like videoconferences and electronic communications.

Republican Rep. Cindy Kirchhofer authored the proposal and says the expansion includes addiction and behavioral health treatment that often requires extensive services.

“You have the management of the other wrap-around services to lift you up as you are going through your treatment program,” says Kirchhofer.

The House Republicans’ replacement plan for the Affordable Care Act—otherwise known as Obamacare—would gradually phase out enrollment in Medicaid expansion programs such as Indiana’s Healthy Indiana Plan.

The bill—released earlier this week—aims to let the expansions remain for another three years. Starting in 2020, enrollment would “freeze,” and no new enrollees would be able to join, which would mean the program would gradually lose members.

Approximately 250 thousand people currently have coverage through HIP 2.0.

A new study is the first to measure access to preventative health care services after the Affordable Care Act, or ACA.

The study looked at low-income adults without children in 30 states, including Indiana, where Medicaid has been expanded. It finds these adults are accessing more preventative care services like immunizations, screenings and mammograms.

Indiana University researcher and professor Kosali Simon co-authored the paper and says prevention is one goal of the ACA.

Home health providers appear to have successfully lobbied the state not to lower their Medicaid reimbursement rates.

In May, the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration announced it was planning to lower the amount of money home health care workers would get through the Medicaid program—as much as 8 percent for registered nurses and 6 percent for home health aides.

But after discussions between government officials and industry reps, the state has decided to nix its original plan and keep the 2016 rates intact.

Indiana adolescents participate in Medicaid and children’s health programs at a significantly lower rate than their younger counterparts, according to data from the Urban Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Of 13-to-18 year olds in Indiana who can receive Medicaid coverage, 83 percent are actually enrolled. That’s compared with 89 and 88 percent of kids 0-5 and 6-12, respectively. That 5 percent gap is standard across the U.S., although the national participation rates are higher on average.

A new report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Urban Institute finds 87 percent of Medicaid-eligible children in Indiana have health insurance.

That might sound like a substantial figure, but 32 states have participation rates for that same group above 90 percent. Indiana ranks 44th for its childrens’ Medicaid coverage.

About 4 out of 10 kids in Indiana receive Medicaid coverage...that’s approximately 650,000 people.

And experts say there some are still slipping through the cracks. Almost 9 percent of Medicaid-eligible children remain uninsured.

 The Indiana Department of Correction says it has reached a milestone by enrolling thousands of released offenders in HIP 2.0 and Medicaid.