Modern Healthcare Quotes Manatt Professional on MACPAC Proposal
"Reform Update: Medicaid Panel Urges Congress to Fix Coverage Gap for Pregnant Women"
Modern Healthcare
December 17, 2013 - Modern Healthcare quoted Manatt's Jocelyn Guyer, a director with Manatt Health Solutions, on why the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC) is urging Congress to make sure pregnant women do not fall between the cracks of Medicaid and subsidized private coverage.
As reported by Modern Healthcare, the health reform law allows states to retain their current Medicaid benefits for pregnant women, creating a little-noticed situation under which women earning above 138% of poverty who would qualify for federal premium subsidies to help them buy private coverage are no longer are eligible for the subsidies once they become pregnant. Adults who are eligible for Medicaid do not qualify for premium subsidies. MACPAC has issued seven policy recommendations that it will include in its March 2014 report to Congress.
The MACPAC suggestion "ensures that these pregnant women won't have to bounce back and forth between coverage," said Guyer. "It's a lot of disruption when you have to switch plans and work with different providers only then to have to switch again a few months later."
Read the article here.