Tag: State News

Posted on by

IL- After legalizing midwives, Illinois lawmakers look to cover the service with Medicaid

MM Curator summary

[ MM Curator Summary]: Illinois program officials believe midwives will address poor maternal outcomes.

 
 

The article below has been highlighted and summarized by our research team. It is provided here for member convenience as part of our Curator service.

 
 

 
 

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WICS/WRSP) — Springfield lawmakers want to expand Medicaid to cover in-home birthing services.

A bill that has already passed in the House would expand Medicaid coverage for midwife services. The voucher program would include coverage for home birth services, in-home prenatal care, and postpartum services from certified professional midwives.

In December, Gov. JB Pritzker, D-Illinois, signed a law that allows for the professional regulation of midwives in Illinois, a practice that had been illegal in the state since 1992.

Rep. Mary Flowers, D-Chicago, is a chief sponsor of the Medicaid bill and says it aims to address major healthcare disparities experienced amongst Black women.
 

“In 2018, the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) reported that Black women were six times as likely to die from pregnancy related conditions when compared to white women,” Flowers said.

The same IDPH report found that 72% of pregnancy-related deaths and 93% of violent pregnancy-associated deaths in Illinois were preventable.

Between 2016 and 2017, IDPH also reported that Black women had the highest level of severe maternal morbidity, with a rate of 101.5 per 10,0000 deliveries. The statistic is almost three times the maternal morbidity rate for white women.

The Medicaid legislation directs the Task Force on Infant and Maternal Mortality Among African Americans to “partner with Holistic Birth Collective to advise the Department of Healthcare and Family Services on the development of a Medicaid voucher program.”

If the bill becomes law, the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services must apply for the Medicaid coverage change by Dec. 31, 2022.

Illinois is the 36th state to legalize the practice of midwifery.

 
 

Clipped from: https://newschannel20.com/news/local/after-legalizing-midwives-illinois-lawmakers-look-to-cover-the-service-with-medicaid

 
 

Posted on by

Biogen Shares Fall Premarket on Medicaid Coverage Plans for Aduhelm

MM Curator summary

[ MM Curator Summary]: Hopes are fading for Aduhelm backers.

 
 

The article below has been highlighted and summarized by our research team. It is provided here for member convenience as part of our Curator service.

 
 

 
 

Shares of Biogen Inc. fell nearly 10% in premarket trading Wednesday after Medicare officials indicated they plan to limit coverage of the company’s Alzheimer’s disease drug Aduhelm, prompting several Wall Street analysts to cut their views on the company.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid said in a proposed policy that they would cover Aduhelm on the condition that patients are in clinical trials and have early-stage symptoms.

Advertisement

Analysts at Stifel called the proposal, which is subject to a final decision due in April, a “big blow” to Aduhelm that means the drug won’t be a meaningful revenue driver for the foreseeable future.

Mizuho analysts, who have a neutral rating on Biogen shares, cut their price target on the stock to $207 from $270 after removing nearly all Aduhelm sales from their model. Analysts at Piper Sandler downgraded Biogen shares to neutral from overweight and reduced their price target to $216 from $362, while analysts at Needham cut their target to $292 from $328.

Biogen shares rose as high as $468.55 on June 7 after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval of Aduhelm, the first new Alzheimer’s drug in nearly two decades, but the stock fell back amid pricing issues with the drug and ended last year at $239.32, below its 2020 closing price of $244.86.

In premarket trading Wednesday, Biogen shares were down 9.3% to $219.23.

Write to Colin Kellaher at colin.kellaher@wsj.com

 
 

Clipped from: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/biogen-shares-fall-premarket-on-medicaid-coverage-plans-for-aduhelm-271641990727?mod=newsviewer_click

Posted on by

Molina closes $60M acquisition of Cigna’s Medicaid contracts in Texas

MM Curator summary

[ MM Curator Summary]: Molina completes another acquisition, this time adding 50,000 lives.

 
 

The article below has been highlighted and summarized by our research team. It is provided here for member convenience as part of our Curator service.

 
 


Dive Brief:

  • Molina has completed its acquisition of rival health insurer Cigna’s Medicaid contracts in Texas, the California-based payer said Monday, as it continues to invest heavily in the safety-net insurance program.
  • The purchase price for the transaction was approximately $60 million in cash, according to a recent filing with the SEC.
  • Though Molina was already active in Texas, nabbing Cigna’s beneficiaries is a significant add: As of November, Cigna covered approximately 50,000 Medicaid beneficiaries in the state. Molina closed out 2020 with 357,000 members in Texas. 

Dive Insight:

Molina covers some 4.8 million people in the U.S., but Medicaid is the payer’s flagship business, representing more than three-fourths of its members (and premiums). The program has grown because of the pandemic, causing some players in Medicaid markets to ratchet up their investments and others to jump in for the first time.

Molina is known for being acquisitive, but has been on a tear as it looks to capitalize on this growth. Currently, the payer offers Medicaid plans in 18 states, with the greatest scale and revenues stemming from health plans in California, Ohio, Washington and Texas.

Moving to nab Cigna’s Medicaid contracts in Texas, first announced in April, is one such recent deal that should yield significant financial returns for Molina: Cigna’s some 50,000 Medicaid members in the state represent approximately $1 billion in annual premium revenue.

Along with recent contract wins in Nevada and Ohio, Molina also in October announced it had closed its acquisition of New York Medicaid health plan Affinity Health for approximately $380 million, and that it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire AgeWell’s New York’s Medicaid managed long-term care business for approximately $110 million.

The AgeWell deal, which will add about 13,000 members to Molina’s rolls representing about $700 million in premium revenue, is expected to close by the third quarter this year.

Like most other major payers, COVID-19 ushered Molina to high profits in 2020, but more recently has negatively impacted the insurer’s finances. Molina’s net income in the third quarter of $143 million was down 23% year over year as the payer shelled out more for patient care than in the prior-year quarter.

Despite COVID-19’s volatility, Molina has been managing well in the markets, outperforming the S&P 500 last year. But the stability of the Medicaid rolls it’s so dependent on is a key area of interest for market watchers, as the longevity of the public health emergency will determine if and when a restart of Medicaid redeterminations will impact managed care organizations this year.

The Families First Coronavirus Act, passed in March 2020, gave states a temporary bump to their federal match funds in the Medicaid program as long as they ensured eligible beneficiaries stayed enrolled during the national emergency. That continuous coverage requirement contributed to Medicaid becoming the largest single source of insurance coverage in the U.S.

But when the emergency ends, states can resume redeterminations, potentially kicking millions off the safety-net insurance due to a change in income or other factors.

Molina said along with its third quarter financial release it expects the public health emergency to run at least through mid-January.

The payer’s Medicaid enrollment has ballooned to about 4 million members at the end of the third quarter, due primarily to the continuing suspension of redeterminations. Molina estimates that’s resulted in an increase of more than 700,000 Medicaid members since the beginning of the pandemic.

However, CEO Joe Zubretsky told investors in October the insurer expects to keep only half of those new Medicaid members gained during the pandemic after redeterminations are resumed nationwide.

Clipped from: https://www.healthcaredive.com/news/molina-closes-60m-acquisition-of-cignas-medicaid-contracts-in-texas/616674/

Posted on by

Medicaid managed care bill drops on eve of 2022 Legislative Session

MM Curator summary

[ MM Curator Summary]: A state legislator wants to pre-empt the MCO protest machine.

 
 

The article below has been highlighted and summarized by our research team. It is provided here for member convenience as part of our Curator service.

 
 

 
 

Sen. Jason Brodeur filed SB 1950, a 36-page proposal to reduce Florida’s number of Medicaid managed care regions — from 11 to eight — and require managed care plans to contract with two of the state’s cancer hospitals.

Filed Monday, the bill, in an attempt to blunt potential legal challenges to the nine-figure Medicaid procurement, contains language that would preclude any managed care plan from providing care to any of its enrollees until all administrative challenges to the procurement are settled.

Brodeur’s proposal would reconfigure the current 11 Medicaid-managed care regions.

The bill consolidates Medicaid Regions 1 and 2 into a Medicaid Region A. Medicaid Regions 3 and 4 will roll into the new Medicaid Region B. And Medicaid Regions 5 and 6 are rolled together into Region C. The rest of the Medicaid regions remain the same, with letters replacing numbers.

Florida requires most Medicaid beneficiaries to enroll in a managed care plan to receive services from the cradle to the grave. Only Medicaid-managed care organizations that win competitively bid Medicaid contracts in a region can provide the care. The current Medicaid managed care contracts expire on Dec. 31, 2023. The agency is gearing up to begin the new procurement process and work on the new Medicaid managed care contracts to replace the current agreements.

 
 

The bill comes weeks after Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Simone Marstiller signaled the agency would push for some legislative changes to the program.

Marstiller asked lawmakers in the fall to include an additional $2 million in her agency’s fiscal year 2022-2023 budget to hire outside counsel.

Marstiller said she wanted funding available to the agency “at the ready” to ensure her team can employ the best outside legal help available.

The Senate bill does not propose any changes to the Medicaid dental program, although Medicaid Director Tom Wallace hinted the agency might want to pursue changes.

The bill also requires Medicaid-managed care plans to contract with Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center and Moffitt Cancer Center.

The Brodeur bill eliminates the state’s requirement to allow the public to have feedback before submitting Medicaid amendments to the federal government for review. AHCA told Florida Politics Tuesday the public comment requirement being eliminated from the bill was specific to creating the Medicaid managed care program. Federal law still requires a public comment period.

Post Views: 880

 
 

Clipped from: https://floridapolitics.com/archives/485399-medicaid-managed-care-bill-drops-on-eve-of-2022-legislative-session/

Posted on by

Clinics Say California’s New Medicaid Drug Program Will Force Them to Cut Services

MM Curator summary

[ MM Curator Summary]: A judge has denied CA clinics’ request to keep drug prices high so they can make more 340B profits.

 
 

The article below has been highlighted and summarized by our research team. It is provided here for member convenience as part of our Curator service.

 
 

 
 

An East Palo Alto resident is inoculated during a COVID-19 vaccination clinic run by Ravenswood Family Health Network at Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park on April 10, 2021. Ravenswood clinics serve low-income populations with more than half of their patients participating in Medi-Cal and other public health care programs. (Anne Wernikoff/CalMatters)

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California’s sweeping new program to buy prescription drugs for its nearly 14 million Medicaid patients has alarmed health clinics that say they will lose money and have to cut services.

Gov. Gavin Newsom acknowledged Monday that some clinics, which serve the poorest Californians, would lose funding, and he included $105 million for them in the 2022-23 proposed state budget he unveiled in the state capital.

But the allocation falls far short of what clinic officials say they need to keep critical health care services funded in some of California’s neediest areas. California’s federally qualified health centers, which operate more than 1,000 clinics across the state, have filed a lawsuit in federal court to exempt them from the program, but a judge on Monday denied their request for a temporary reprieve while the lawsuit proceeds.

“People are going to be laid off; services are going to be cut,” said Anthony White, president of the Community Health Center Alliance for Patient Access, a statewide organization of federally qualified health centers. “It’s going to decrease access for our patients.”

The drug program, known as Medi-Cal Rx, debuted Jan. 1 and is one of Newsom’s key health care initiatives. It takes the responsibility for prescription drug coverage in the state’s Medicaid program away from managed-care plans and puts it into the hands of a state contractor.

On his first day in office in 2019, Newsom promised the overhaul would deliver better health care for patients and generate “substantial annual savings” because the state would negotiate lower prices as one of the largest drug purchasers in the country.

The Newsom administration anticipates the state will save $414 million in the 2022-23 budget year and nearly two times that amount in the next one, said Keely Martin Bosler, director of the California Department of Finance.

California’s health clinics, however, could lose up to $200 million a year in drug reimbursements, White estimated, money they have been using to care for patients with asthma, HIV and other chronic health problems. The reimbursement money is a key revenue stream for clinics, but they rely primarily on federal grants for their funding, in addition to some patient revenue and private donations.

At issue is money the clinics have received through a federal prescription drug savings program known as “340B.” The 340B program requires drug manufacturers participating in Medicaid to offer deep discounts to certain providers that care for underserved and uninsured people, including health clinics. The health centers, in turn, must use that money to expand health care services.

Beginning Jan. 1, California started buying prescription drugs for all its low-income and disabled residents enrolled in Medi-Cal, the country’s largest Medicaid program. Because the state expects to get bigger discounts on drugs than the roughly two dozen Medi-Cal managed-care insurance plans did, clinics expect to receive less 340B money.

The $105 million Newsom earmarked for health clinics in his budget proposal to offset their losses was not intended to fully replace them, said Michelle Baass, director of the state Department of Health Care Services, which administers Medi-Cal, in the state’s Jan. 5 response to the clinics’ lawsuit.

“Plaintiffs have no entitlement to continued profits from selling marked up 340B drugs,” she wrote.

The funding Newsom proposed is not guaranteed. Indeed, it is now subject to the annual budget negotiation process. The legislature has until June 15 to negotiate with Newsom and adopt a deal. The 2022-23 state budget takes effect July 1.

Mark Ghaly, secretary of the state’s Health and Human Services Agency, said the administration has been working with clinics and is open to further discussions.

“We’re always happy to sit down and try to understand what the conditions are today,” Ghaly said.

California Healthline’s Angela Hart contributed to this report.

This story was produced by KHN, which publishes California Healthline, an editorially independent service of the California Health Care Foundation.

 
 

Clipped from: https://www.timesheraldonline.com/2022/01/11/clinics-say-californias-new-medicaid-drug-program-will-force-them-to-cut-services/

Posted on by

AR/Rx- State officials announce Arkansas Medicaid pharmacy benefits expansion

MM Curator summary

[ MM Curator Summary]: The state has removed restrictions on several types of medications.

The article below has been highlighted and summarized by our research team. It is provided here for member convenience as part of our Curator service.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Arkansas Medicaid clients now have additional pharmacy benefits, including three more prescriptions each month.

According to officials with the Arkansas Department of Health, Arkansas Medicaid previously paid for three prescriptions per month for adult clients. Now, the program will pay for three more prescriptions, allowing adult Medicaid clients up to six paid prescriptions.

Expansion of Arkansas Medicaid system announced

Multiple classes of routine medication will no longer count toward that limit, the ADH added. According to Arkansas Medicaid, these medication types are:

•    High blood pressure
•    High cholesterol
•    Bleeding disorders
•    Diabetes
•    Inhalers for breathing disorders
•    Birth control pills
•    Contraceptives
•    Medications used to treat opioid disorder
•    Medications that help you stop smoking

The additional pharmacy benefits are only available to adults aged 21 and older who are in the fee-for-service Medicaid program, officials said.

For more information, call the Arkansas Department of Human Services Pharmacy Department at 501-683-4120 or visit the ADH website.

Clipped from: https://www.kark.com/news/state-news/arkansas-medicaid-announces-pharmacy-benefits-expansion/

Posted on by

NY/ Expansion- ‘Medicaid for All’ is rapidly becoming a reality in New York

MM Curator summary

[ MM Curator Summary]: Half the people in NY are on Medicaid now.

 
 

The article below has been highlighted and summarized by our research team. It is provided here for member convenience as part of our Curator service.

 
 

 
 

Gotham enrolls an even higher share of its residents in Medicaid: more than 4 million people, or nearly half of the city’s 8.8 million people. Shutterstock

In New York, it looks like the Democrats’ dream of “Medicare for All” is rapidly becoming a reality. Or at least “Medicaid for All.”

Since COVID struck, enrollment in the government-funded health-insurance program has shot up by 1.5 million people, as The Post reported this week. And the numbers were soaring even before that: By January 2020, 6.1 million of the state’s 19.8 million residents were enrolled; now, health officials estimate 7.6 million people will be getting benefits by March. That’s nearly 40 percent of the state’s population.

Add in other state health programs, from Child Health Plus to the Essential Plan, and it comes to 8.4 million New Yorkers, or 42 percent of the population, getting aid, the Empire Center reports.

And this is supposed to be a backstop program for just the poorest New Yorkers.

Gotham enrolls an even higher share of its residents in Medicaid: more than 4 million people, or nearly half of the city’s 8.8 million people.

New York has long been a national leader, both in terms of the number of enrollees and how much it spends on them — around $75 billion last year, including federal, state and local funds. And as the Empire Center also notes, more New Yorkers above the poverty line qualify for Medicaid than those under it. Even as New York’s poverty rate declined, its Medicaid rolls grew by 1.4 million from 2010 to 2019.

Clearly, the state needs to better screen applicants. But it also needs to rethink how this program “for the poor” works. Because soon, the state won’t be able to afford anything else but this.

 
 

Clipped from: https://nypost.com/2021/12/27/medicaid-for-all-is-rapidly-becoming-a-reality-in-new-york/

Posted on by

NJ/Fraud- $3.6M Medicaid Fraud Allegations Tied To Ex-NJ Nursing Home Owner

MM Curator summary

[ MM Curator Summary]: A NJ nursing home operator is on the run from the law.

 
 

The article below has been highlighted and summarized by our research team. It is provided here for member convenience as part of our Curator service.

 
 

Crime & Safety


Arkansas authorities are looking for Joseph Schwartz, linked to Andover Subacute’s facilities where 17 bodies piled up during the pandemic.

 
 

Jennifer Jean Miller,

Patch Staff

 
 

Posted Wed, Dec 29, 2021 at 3:41 pm ET

 
 

Arkansas authorities are looking for Joseph Schwartz, linked to Andover Subacute’s facilities where 17 bodies piled up during the pandemic. (Shutterstock)

ANDOVER TOWNSHIP, NJ — An ex-owner of a Sussex County nursing home where bodies were stacked in a makeshift morgue after COVID swept through it, is being sought in Arkansas for tax evasion and a $3.6 million Medicaid fraud.

That investigation has raised questions in New Jersey about the status of a state investigation into the Andover Subacute facilities, now known as Limecrest Subacute and Rehabilitation Center and Woodland Behavioral and Nursing Center, where Joseph Schwartz, who owns Skyline nursing homes, is linked to the ownership.

NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt aired a segment in November about what happened at the Andover Subacute facilities during the pandemic below, interviewing a former employee who spoke for the first time about what happened on Easter weekend in April 2020, when the morgue became so packed, one body was placed in a storage shed.

Find out what’s happening in Hopatcong-Sparta with free, real-time updates from Patch.

RELATED: Watch NJ Nursing Home Ex-Employee Talk About ‘Makeshift Morgue’

In the Lester Holt broadcast, interviewer Stephanie Gosk spoke about the outcome of the federal inspections at Andover Subacute after the 2020 incident, which later changed its name, referring back to NBC News’ own 2019 investigation into Schwartz’s company.

Find out what’s happening in Hopatcong-Sparta with free, real-time updates from Patch.

Schwartz’s Skyline reportedly once had a stake in the Andover facilities, with his son Louis still one of the owners, NBC News reported in its exposé below:

 
 

The Allegations From Arkansas

Arkansas’ Attorney General Leslie Rutledge said authorities are looking for Schwartz after a 44-month investigation into his company Skyline nursing homes, who Rutledge said received $3.6 million in 2018 from overbilled Medicaid payments for eight facilities that he owns in Arkansas.

According to a recent news release from Rutledge’s office, Schwartz’s company ballooned its billings to more than $6.2 million by filing bogus cost reports, statements and other documents, which resulted in an overpayment to his company of more than $3.6 million from Arkansas’ Medicaid Program.

Rutledge said Schwartz was also charged with attempting to evade taxes by taking out over $2 million in income taxes from his Arkansas employees’ paychecks between July 2017 and March 2018, without forwarding those tax withholdings to the State of Arkansas.

He additionally took in “tens of millions of dollars in gross income,” from his facilities in 2018 and 2019, for which he never filed tax returns, according to Rutledge.

“These charges come after a 44-month-long investigation into Skyline’s wrongdoings, and I will not sit idly by while anyone defrauds the State and Federal government out of millions of dollars to line their own pockets,” Rutledge said. “It’s important for Arkansans to know if they suspect Medicaid fraud, they should immediately contact my office.”

Her office referred the case to the Attorney General’s Office by the Office of Medicaid Inspector General, following a joint investigation with the HHS OIG- Office of Investigation, Nebraska Medicaid Fraud and Patient Abuse Unit, Kansas MFCU, Maryland MFCU and South Dakota MFCU.

Local Response To Allegations Against Schwartz

Members of Sussex County’s Board of County Commissioners responded to the news about the Arkansas warrant for Schwartz on Wednesday, stating they plan to draft a letter to New Jersey’s Acting Attorney General Andrew J. Bruck for an update on the state’s investigation into Andover Subacute, which the commissioners plan to present at their next public meeting.

According to a news release from the commissioners, they say that Governor Phil Murphy’s administration continues to stonewall Open Public Records Act requests that Sussex County’s attorney first submitted in May 2020.

RELATED: Still No Answers In Case Of NJ ‘Makeshift Morgue’ Nursing Home

The County Commissioners additionally say that “a yearlong investigation by the New Jersey Attorney General into Andover Subacute and other nursing homes has produced no news.”

A special public question that was on Sussex County ballots in the Nov. 2 General election, overwhelmingly had more than 34,000 votes or 82 percent of voters choosing “yes” for a deeper probe into the COVID-19 deaths in New Jersey’s nursing home, as well as further release of information related to New Jersey’s handling of nursing homes during the pandemic.

RELATED: Sussex Co. Ballot Question Calls For COVID-19 Nursing Home Probe

The commissioners say that the news about Schwartz thrusts into the spotlight the “poor management of the nursing homes in the run-up to Governor Phil Murphy’s Executive Order 103 that forced many substandard, long-term care facilities to accept COVID patients.”

“The fact that state officials were responsible for the licensing and oversight of these facilities only heightens the need for transparency and full disclosure,” wrote Samantha Gabriele, a spokesperson on behalf of the commissioners.

“The County Commissioners have cooperated fully with the state investigation, including allowing interviewing of staff members, all emails and correspondences; and emails to the state Health Department in response to what was happening at the nursing home,” said Commissioner Herb Yardley.

He called the cooperation from the state “one-sided,” indicating that rather than having an investigation conducted by the Attorney General, who Murphy appointed, it should be performed by special counsel.

“It’s been more than a year and we still have not heard anything about this investigation or how the policies, decisions and oversight directed at our nursing homes resulted in tragedy,” Commissioner Anthony Fasano said. “Transparency and accountability are so desperately needed and so noticeably missing.”

Questions or comments about this story? Have a local news tip? Contact me at: jennifer.miller@patch.com.

Clipped from: https://patch.com/new-jersey/hopatcong-sparta/3-6m-medicaid-fraud-allegations-tied-ex-nj-nursing-home-owner

Posted on by

KY/Providers- Eligible Kentucky hospitals can get up to $1.1B more in Medicaid payments in 2022

MM Curator summary

[ MM Curator Summary]: KY Medicaid financing maneuvers will now send an additional $2B to hospitals.

 
 

The article below has been highlighted and summarized by our research team. It is provided here for member convenience as part of our Curator service.

 
 

Kentucky hospitals that meet federal quality measures can receive up to $1.1 billion in increased Medicaid payments in 2022, Gov. Andy Beshear announced Dec. 29.

The funding is available through a federally approved, state-directed payment model, according to a news release from the governor’s office.

This is the second announcement in 2021 of additional funding after Mr. Beshear announced in January that Kentucky hospitals would receive an additional $800 million to $1 billion.

More than one-third of the state’s population is enrolled in Medicaid, according to the release.

“Health care is a basic human right, and our people deserve the best care possible,” Mr. Beshear said. “This year, our state has faced so much tragedy and heartbreak from the pandemic, tornadoes and other natural disasters, and we are thankful to our hospitals for continuing to provide quality health care to our Kentucky families in need.”

 
 

Clipped from: https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/finance/eligible-kentucky-hospitals-can-get-up-to-1-1b-more-in-medicaid-payments-in-2022.html

Posted on by

NV/HCBS- Nevada leveraging federal funds for home care workers

MM Curator summary

[ MM Curator Summary]: Home care workers can get a one-time $500 payment.

 
 

The article below has been highlighted and summarized by our research team. It is provided here for member convenience as part of our Curator service.

 
 

Nevada Medicaid is leveraging an opportunity through the federal American Rescue Plan Act to offer $500 supplemental payments to Medicaid home care workers who have been on the front lines of the pandemic.

“Nevada is indebted to this critical workforce that quietly helps people stay in their homes every day,” said Governor Steve Sisolak. “Home care workers left their own homes and cared for our elderly and Nevadans with disabilities so that they didn’t have to leave home. This opportunity is one way to give back.”

Home care workers were first informed of this opportunity late last year, and the application period is open until January 14.

The $500 supplemental payment is available to home care workers who have maintained their employment with an agency since Nov. 1, 2021. Medicaid providers offering home care services may apply on behalf of employees until January 14, 2022. Participation is voluntary. The application and qualifications can be found at https://dhcfp.nv.gov/Pgms/LTSS/AmericanRescuePlan/

Nevada has more than 13,000 home care workers, predominately women and disproportionately minorities, who help older Nevadans and persons with physical or intellectual disabilities with daily tasks to remain independent in their homes.

Nevada Medicaid offers free or low-cost health insurance for working Nevadans, people who have lost their jobs or have become too sick to work. The program supports low-income families, children, seniors, and people with disabilities and offers financial protection against bankruptcy for families who are struck by unexpected illness. Nevada Medicaid makes health care possible in many urban and rural communities. Sign up today for Nevada Medicaid email alerts. Apply for Nevada Medicaid at Access Nevada or call 1-800-992-0900. If you are not eligible for Medicaid, subsidies and tax credits for health insurance costs are offered through NevadaHealthLink.com (1-800-547-2927).

###

 
 

Clipped from: https://gov.nv.gov/News/Press/2022/Nevada_leveraging_federal_funds_for_home_care_workers/