Tag: Medicaid
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Alabama Medicaid Agency Updates
Short-Acting Opioid Naïve Limits — Effective Nov. 1 Effective Nov. 1, 2018, the Alabama Medicaid Agency will begin implementing limits on short-acting opiates for opioid naïve recipients. The Agency defines “opioid naïve” as a recipient with no opioid claim in the past 180 days. Edit Details: A 7-day supply limit for adults age 19 and older…
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Brookwood Baptist Medical Center Medicare Certification Extended
Brookwood Baptist Medical Center, the second largest hospital in the metro Birmingham area, received an 11th-hour reprieve Thursday night with regulators from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services accepted the facility’s action, thus allowing the hospital to continue its Medicare and Medicaid billing privileges. However, the facility is not out hot water just yet.…
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WIC Income Guidelines Increase. Are Your Patients Eligible?
Alabama families may qualify for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, better known as WIC. If you are a woman who is pregnant, who had a baby within the past six months, who is breastfeeding, or who is the parent or guardian of a child up to age 5, you are…
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![What If No One Was On Call [at the Legislature]?](https://alabamamedicine.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/AlabamaStateHouse_banner.jpg)
What If No One Was On Call [at the Legislature]?
2018 Recap of the Regular Session of the Alabama Legislature In times of illness, injury and emergency, patients depend on their physicians. But what if no one was on call? Public health would be in jeopardy. However, the same holds true for the Legislature. During the 2018 session alone, if the Medical Association had not…
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Navigate the New Medicare ID Transition in 9 Steps
Due to a legislative mandate in MACRA passed in 2015, Medicare will no longer use social security numbers to identify individuals. Instead, a new randomly generated Medicare Beneficiary Identifier (MBI) will be assigned to all 58 million Medicare recipients. New Medicare ID cards containing the MBI are currently being sent to recipients. “It is a…
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Bipartisan Budget Act Boosts Health Programs
In a rare show of bipartisanship for the mostly polarized 115th Congress, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 is officially one for the record books. The week leading up to the final vote was far from smooth with Sen. Nancy Pelosi impressively filibustering on the floor of the U.S. Senate for eight hours to Rep.…
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Medical Association’s 2018 State and Federal Agendas
The Medical Association Board of Censors has met and approved the Association’s 2018 State and Federal Agendas. These agendas were developed with guidance from the House of Delegates and input from individual physicians. As the Alabama Legislature and U.S. Congress begin their work for 2018, additional items affecting physicians, medical practices and patients may be…
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CMS Announces New Medicaid Policy to Combat Opioid Crisis
Just a week after President Trump declared the opioid epidemic a public health emergency, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a new policy to allow states to design demonstration projects that increase access to treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD) and other substance use disorders (SUD). CMS’s new demonstration policy responds to…
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CBO Analysis of Proposed CHIP Funding Bill Causes Doubt
More than three weeks after the deadline to renew the Children’s Health Insurance Program, the Congressional Budget Office has released an analysis of the five-year extension bill, which would extend the bill to 2022 so they can make a few changes, including revamping federal matching rates. The CBO analysis, which also indicated the proposed legislation…
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UPDATE: Lawmakers Back to the Drawing Board for CHIP Funding Renewal
UPDATED OCT. 12, 2017 — Legislation to renew funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program has stalled in the U.S. House as lawmakers continue debating how to pay for the program. This is the third delay requested by the Democrats as the lawmakers now work to mark up the legislation to extend funding for critical programs other…