Medicaid expansion rule focuses on enrollment process

The Obama administration released a rule Friday detailing the specifics of this coverage expansion and trying to simplify the enrollment process. 

The Wall Street Journal: States Get Medicaid Rules
The Obama administration on Friday told states how to enroll millions more low-income Americans into Medicaid under the health care overhaul, 10 days before the Supreme Court begins considering a challenge to the law. The regulations, published by the Department of Health and Human Services, detail the scheduled expansion of Medicaid to cover a larger batch of low earners in 2014, when much of the health-care law is set to take effect (Radnofsky, 3/16).

CQ HealthBeat: Medicaid Expansion Rule Aims For Vastly Simpler Enrollment Process
A final rule released Friday spells out the terms for the expanded Medicaid eligibility in 2014 under the health care law and requires "real-time" enrollment that documents income, citizenship and other data without the applicant having to bring in paperwork. The rule also collapses the many eligibility categories now in Medicaid into just four: adults, children, parents and pregnant women (Reichard, 3/16).

Kaiser Health News: Capsules: HHS Issue Final Rule For 2014 Medicaid Expansion
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Friday released final rules for how the Medicaid program will work with the marketplaces, also called insurance exchanges, which are expected to be operational in 2014 (Galewitz, 3/16). 

Also in the news, a report on another health law rule released Friday, as well as a big picture view of implementing the measure --

Modern Healthcare: HHS Issues Reform Rule To Limit Insurer Risk
A final rule issued Friday will implement several provisions of the 2010 federal health care law that aim to shift funds among insurance plans when many of the industry's practices designed to maintain their solvency are banned in 2014. The rule finalizes the designs of programs for risk adjustment, reinsurance, and risk corridors (Daly, 3/16).

Kansas Health Institute News: Q and A with HHS Regional Administrator Jay Angoff
As a senior adviser with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Jay Angoff works with state and local governments on implementation of the federal Affordable Care Act. Q: How would you say the new regulations move the ball down the court in implementing the Affordable Care Act? A: It makes it real clear that the states have a lot of flexibility. One key area is whether the exchange is going to be strong or weak (Sherry, 3/16).