Medicaid News and Research

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Medicaid is the United States health program for eligible individuals and families with low incomes and resources. It is a means-tested program that is jointly funded by the states and federal government, and is managed by the states.

Feds urge states to encourage cheaper plans off the exchanges

For those who make too much money to qualify for health insurance subsidies on the individual market, there may be no Goldilocks moment when shopping for a plan. No choice is just right.

14 Aug 2018

Study finds quality of doctor-patient discussions about lung cancer screening to be 'poor'

Although national guidelines advise doctors to discuss the benefits and harms of lung cancer screening with high-risk patients because of a high rate of false positives and other factors, those conversations aren't happening the way they should be, according to a study by researchers from the University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.

14 Aug 2018

Trump administration sinks teeth into paring down drug prices, on 5 key points

Three months after President Donald Trump announced his blueprint to bring down drug prices, administration officials have begun putting some teeth behind the rhetoric.

10 Aug 2018

Medicare to overhaul ACOs but critics fear fewer participants

Accountable care organizations were among the key initiatives of the Affordable Care Act, designed to help control soaring Medicare costs.

9 Aug 2018

Pharmacy-made pain creams flagged on fears of Medicare fraud and risk

Medicare pays hundreds of millions of dollars each year for prescription creams, gels and lotions made-to-order by pharmacies — mainly as pain treatments. But a new report finds that officials are concerned about possible fraud and patient safety risks from products made at nearly a quarter of the pharmacies that fill the bulk of those prescriptions.

9 Aug 2018

Medicaid expansion increases access to diabetes treatment

Prescriptions for diabetes medications increased in the first two years after states expanded eligibility for Medicaid as part of the Affordable Care Act, compared to states that didn't expand Medicaid.

7 Aug 2018

Medicaid expansion making diabetes meds more accessible to poor, study shows

Low-income people with diabetes are better able to afford their medications and manage their disease in states that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, a new study suggests.

6 Aug 2018

In weary post-storm Puerto Rico, Medicaid cutbacks bode new ills

Blue tarps still dot rooftops, homes lack electricity needed to refrigerate medicines, and clinics chip away at debts incurred from running generators. Yet despite the residual effects from last year's devastating hurricanes, Puerto Rico is moving ahead with major cuts to its health care safety net that will affect more than a million of its poorest residents.

6 Aug 2018

People closest to federal poverty line mostly benefited from Obamacare

The Affordable Care Act - or Obamacare - most benefited those closest to the federal poverty line, a study led by Drexel University researchers shows.

2 Aug 2018

How rival opioid makers sought to cash in on alarm over oxycontin’s dangers

As Purdue Pharma faced mounting criticism over deaths linked to OxyContin, rival drugmakers saw a chance to boost sales by stepping up marketing of similarly dangerous painkillers, such as fentanyl, morphine and methadone, Purdue internal documents reveal.

2 Aug 2018

Peer comparison letters lead to persistent decrease in antipsychotic prescribing

A study led by Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health has found that letters targeting high prescribers of Seroquel, an antipsychotic with potentially harmful side effects in the elderly, significantly reduced the number of prescriptions for patients in Medicare.

2 Aug 2018

The University Of Chicago Medicine receives CoC accreditation for high quality cancer care

The University of Chicago Medicine has received another three-year accreditation from the Commission on Cancer, a voluntary program administered by the American College of Surgeons. CoC accreditation demonstrates a cancer program's commitment to providing high-quality, multidisciplinary, patient-centered cancer care.

1 Aug 2018

FSMB partners with NAM to form Action Collaborative on countering opioid epidemic

In recognition of the need for a national coordinated and collective response to the epidemic of opioid addiction in the U.S., the Federation of State Medical Boards is partnering with the National Academy of Medicine and 35 organizations to form the Action Collaborative on Countering the U.S. Opioid Epidemic.

1 Aug 2018

Some doctors, patients balk at Medicare’s ‘flat fee’ payment proposal

The Trump administration announced a plan Friday that would affect about 40 percent of the payments physicians receive from Medicare. Not everybody’s pleased.

31 Jul 2018

Infants experiencing homelessness found to be at greater risk of poor health

A new study led by researchers from Children's HealthWatch, a research and policy network headquartered at Boston Medical Center, shows infants under 12 months old who experience homelessness are at-risk of poor health and development compared to their peers in housed families.

31 Jul 2018

Missed visits, uncontrolled pain and fraud: report says hospice lacks oversight

Elderly patients spent over two weeks in uncontrolled pain or respiratory distress. Acute care was rare on weekends. And recruiters went door to door pitching fraudulent schemes, luring healthy patients to sign up for hospice in exchange for free housecleaning and medicine.

31 Jul 2018

Mining a new data set to pinpoint critical staffing issues in skilled nursing facilities

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is not known for linguistic playfulness. Nonetheless, at least one person there must have been chuckling when it named its rich new data source for nursing home staffing levels the Payroll-Based Journal, or PBJ.

30 Jul 2018

1,400 nursing homes get lower Medicare ratings because of staffing concerns

Medicare has lowered its star ratings for staffing levels in 1 in 11 of the nation's nursing homes — almost 1,400 of them — because they either had inadequate numbers of registered nurses or failed to provide payroll data that proved they had the required nursing coverage, federal records released last week show.

30 Jul 2018

Researchers investigate reason for increase in bariatric surgery wait times

Diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol and borderline high blood pressure, Dana Hayes pursued bariatric surgery in hopes of living a healthier life.

27 Jul 2018

Penn Medicine receives federal government approval to develop imaging guidelines

The United States Congressional Budget Office estimates that 5 percent of the country's gross domestic product is spent on medical tests and procedures that do not improve patient outcomes.

27 Jul 2018