Bills on vaping, lead poisoning, school recess, and post-pregnancy Medicaid coverage all hung in the balance Monday as the Georgia General Assembly convened for its final day. As usual, dozens of health care bills were filed and debated in the 2022 legislative session. But the highest-profile proposal again took the spotlight early Monday afternoon, when…
The Georgia House unanimously passed a bill Wednesday that would strip the prescription drug benefit function from Medicaid’s managed care companies. It’s the second House bill approved in as many days that targets financial practices of the three Medicaid insurers in Georgia. On Tuesday, the chamber passed mental health legislation (House Bill 1013) that would…
By Lauren Weber and Andy Miller Matthew Southern, 35, who has intellectual and developmental disabilities, is able to stay out of an institution because health aides paid through a Medicaid program assist him and his roommate with ordinary tasks. But amid a worker shortage worsened by the pandemic, Southern’s father, Dan, has had to step in…
One House bill would make Georgia’s Medicaid managed care insurers face stricter requirements on how they spend their government dollars. There’s a second bill that has also captured their attention – an attempt to wrest control of patients’ prescription drugs from those health plans. House Bill 1351 would remove the function of the three managed…
The Georgia House passed legislation Tuesday that could give Medicaid coverage to thousands of uninsured residents who have HIV. The chamber approved House Bill 1192 with a bipartisan 136-14 vote. If enacted by the General Assembly, the legislation would instruct the state’s Department of Community Health to apply to the feds for a waiver that…
By Andy Miller and Rebecca Grapevine A House committee Tuesday approved a bill that would require more public disclosure about Georgia health plans serving Medicaid patients and state employees and teachers. House Bill 1276, if it becomes law, would require the main state health agency to post reports showing how many primary care providers these…
By Phil Galewitz and Andy Miller When Republican-led states balked at expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, President Barack Obama’s administration tossed them a carrot — allowing several to charge monthly premiums to newly eligible enrollees. Republicans pushed for the fees to give Medicaid recipients “skin in the game” — the idea they would…
The state Senate unanimously approved a bill Monday extending Medicaid coverage from six months to a year for low-income post-partum women. The legislation aims to address Georgia’s high rate of maternal mortality — women’s deaths related to pregnancy. Medicaid, the federal/state program for low-income and disabled residents, covers more than half of the births in…
Expanding Medicaid would give coverage to thousands of uninsured HIV patients in Georgia and provide millions of dollars of additional services for people infected with the virus, a recently released study says. The expansion of Medicaid, as outlined in the Affordable Care Act, has been adopted in 38 states, but not in Georgia. Republican elected…
By Andy Miller and Rebecca Grapevine Georgia lawmakers will consider a bill that could force the state’s Medicaid managed-care insurers to repay millions of dollars if their spending on medical care doesn’t reach a certain threshold. The bipartisan bill, introduced Jan. 26 by the powerful Georgia House Speaker David Ralston, a Republican, is focused on improving the…