Medicaid news: Fla. plan to challenge state rule on managed care; N.Y. wants permission to invest savings

Florida is seeking to move seniors on Medicaid into a managed care program but one company questions part of the regulations on plans.

Health News Florida: Medicaid Plan To Challenge State
Florida's effort to steer elderly Medicaid patients into managed care is running into its first significant hurdle. A newly formed managed-care plan late last week told state officials that it is ready to challenge the initial contract the state is drawing up as part of a move to hold down the cost of providing long-term care under the state's safety-net program. Aetna Better Health gave notice on Thursday to the state Agency for Health Care Administration that it intends to challenge the contract's requirement that managed-care companies provide as many as three references (Jordan Sexton, 8/6).

Meanwhile, in other Medicaid news -

The Associated Press/Wall Street Journal: NY Seeks Waiver To Invest Medicaid Savings
State health officials say they have applied for a waiver that would enable them to use $10 billion of federal savings from Medicaid changes for other state initiatives meant to improve primary health care for poorer New Yorkers (8/7).

Kansas Health Institute News: Kansas Refiles Section 1115 Waiver Request
Kansas officials today said they resubmitted to federal authorities their request for a Section 1115 Medicaid waiver. The waiver is needed to implement Gov. Sam Brownback's plan to remake the state Medicaid program as KanCare. The application was first submitted in April but then withdrawn to allow for additional input from Native American tribal governments (8/6).

CT Mirror: Malloy Gets Implied OK To Pursue Restrictions On Health Benefits For The Poor
Two state legislative panels will give Gov. Dannel P. Malloy the green light to eliminate Medicaid benefits for more than 13,000 of Connecticut's poorest residents -- but they will do so without a vote. ... [Aug. 18 is] the deadline they face to block an administration application for federal approval to tighten eligibility in the Medicaid for Low-Income Adults program, known as LIA (Phaneuf, 8/6).