Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report Highlights Coverage of Medicaid Developments Related to Hurricane Katrina
Evacuee health benefits: HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt on Tuesday began a two-day tour of shelters in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama to explain special health benefits being offered to hurricane evacuees, according to an HHS release. States will have the flexibility to enroll evacuees in programs including Medicaid without requiring documents such as tax returns or proof of residency. Hurricane survivors without any identification or records "should be able to give their address or other simple form of attestation to be eligible," according to the release. Survivors can enroll by visiting the nearest state or local benefits office or state enrollment teams in many shelters, and they can receive information by calling toll-free phone numbers set up by states or by accessing the Web site Govbenefits.gov. "For those persons with evacuee status, we are stripping away many of the eligibility and enrollment requirements normally needed to apply for federal benefits," Leavitt said, adding, "No one who has been a victim of this disaster should be prevented from getting benefits they need because of government red tape" (HHS release, 9/13).
Policy debate: State and federal officials are in a "tug of war" over the extent to which the federal government will reimburse states for providing Medicaid benefits to hurricane evacuees, the Wall Street Journal reports. Although the Bush administration has "signaled it wants to help" states with the financial burden, the White House "appears cool to any expansion" of Medicaid, the Journal reports. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) said he is "not convinced" that an expansion is necessary but added that it is "likely that the federal government is going to have to step up more." Proposals being developed in Congress include a Senate Finance Committee bill that would increase funding for states, a bill written by House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Joe Barton (R-Texas) that would provide states relief for what Barton called a "reasonable period of time" and a proposal from Democratic lawmakers that all displaced families be made eligible for Medicaid for the next six months to ensure health coverage (Lueck/Rogers, Wall Street Journal, 9/14).
Medical needs: Addressing the medical needs of up to one million evacuees nationwide "looms as an enormous challenge," particularly because many are without their medical records, cannot contact their physicians and are "disproportionately likely to be needy and sicker than average," the Chicago Tribune reports. Many employers from the region have been forced to close at least temporarily and face an uncertain future, meaning that even evacuees with employer-sponsored health insurance could lose their coverage. Meanwhile, public health programs such as Medicaid "don't typically pay for care out of state, but [they] now have hundreds of thousands of members in exactly those circumstances," according to the Tribune (Graham, Chicago Tribune, 9/14).
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Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report Highlights Acoperire de Medicaid Developments conexe pentru a uraganului Katrina - Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report Highlights Coverage of Medicaid Developments Related to Hurricane Katrina - articole medicale engleza - startsanatate