In This Week’s Update:

• New Rule on Website Content Accessibility
• Advancing Health Equity for Justice-Involved Populations
• Toolkit: Assisting States in Analyzing Hospital Finances
• State updates: AL, CO, CT, MA, MD, MI, ND, NH, OH, OR, RI, WA & WY

 

New Rule on Website Content Accessibility 
On April 8, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a final rule intended to strengthen access to state and local government websites and apps for people with disabilities. Within two years after the rule’s effective date, states will need to ensure that any website content or mobile app complies with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. For more information, see the DOJ press release and factsheet. Updates Follow.

Advancing Health Equity for Justice-Involved Populations
The National Center for Medical Legal Partnership will host a webinar on strategies for enhancing access to care and promoting health equity among specific patient demographics through the Medical-Legal Partnership (MLP) framework. The webinar will take place April 30 from 2:00 to 3:00 pm ET and will feature guest speaker Daniel Mistak, Director of Health Care Initiatives for Justice-Involved Populations at Community Oriented Correctional Health Services. The webinar will discuss opportunities and effective strategies for utilizing MLP to address the unique health and social needs of individuals involved in the criminal justice system.

Toolkit: Assisting States in Analyzing Hospital Finances
As states seek ways to improve healthcare affordability, and access, it’s important that they understand health system finances, including hospital revenue and cost drivers. A new series of Peterson-Milbank analytics support resources offers insight into how to use publicly available data sources to examine the financial condition of hospitals and health systems, as well as identifies opportunities to reduce healthcare spending growth that avoid any unintended impacts on hospitals.

Advancing Racial Equity in U.S. Healthcare
A new Commonwealth Fund report evaluates disparities in health and healthcare across racial and ethnic groups, both within states and between U.S. states. The authors collected data for 25 indicators of health system performance, specifically focusing on health outcomes, access to healthcare, and quality and use of healthcare services for Black, White, Hispanic, American Indian and Alaska Native, and Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander populations. The report provides a health system performance “score” for each of the five racial and ethnic groups in every state to make direct comparisons between those groups and between groups in other states.

 

State updates: AL, CO, CT, MA, MD, MI, ND, NH, OH, OR, RI, WA & WY

• Alabama – The state’s Medicaid agency released a request for proposals seeking a vendor to provide an external quality review for the seven primary care case management entities contracted to provide care management to Medicaid enrollees.
• Colorado – The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment issued a statewide public health order to address the increase in congenital syphilis cases in the state. The department will facilitate coordination between state agencies to foster collaboration in response to the growing epidemic.
• Connecticut – The state submitted a request for an amendment to its Medicaid section 1115 demonstration, “Connecticut Substance Use Disorder.” The amendment includes limited services for certain individuals 90 days prior to release from the criminal justice system and the provision of services to address the health-related social needs of the state’s justice-involved Medicaid enrollees.
• Maryland – CMS approved a state plan amendment (SPA) for mobile crisis services in Maryland. This is the 18th mobile crisis SPA approved. As a reminder, State Health & Value Strategies published an expert perspective on the enhanced payment available through the American Rescue Plan Act for community-based mobile crisis services.
• Massachusetts – CMS approved Massachusetts’ request to amend the MassHealth Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Plan section 1115 demonstration. The amendment will: allow the state to provide additional health-related social needs services; expand Marketplace subsidies to individuals with incomes up to 500% of the federal poverty level and cost-sharing assistance by increasing the income limits consistent with the Medicare Savings Program; provide limited coverage for a set of services for certain incarcerated individuals for up to 90 days prior to release; and expand continuous eligibility to 12 months for adults over age 19 and to 24 months to enrollees over age 65 who are experiencing homelessness.
• Michigan – The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services awarded Comprehensive Health Care Program contracts for Michigan’s Medicaid health plans, which serve nearly two million Michigan residents receiving coverage through Medicaid and the Healthy Michigan Plan.
• New Hampshire – The state submitted a request for an amendment to its Medicaid section 1115 demonstration, which would extend presumptive eligibility to individuals applying for home and community-based services under the state’s 1915(c) waiver. Presumptive eligibility will be designed to prevent unnecessary institutionalization of individuals who are Medicaid-eligible for nursing facility services who choose to receive services in less restrictive settings.
• North Dakota – North Dakota Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the release of the 2024-2029 State Health Improvement Plan. The plan sets forth a vision for enhancing the health and wellbeing of North Dakotans by identifying health priorities that will inform the development of associated goals, objectives and activities. The health improvement plan is part of the HHS strategic business plan, which will debut this summer.
• Ohio – The state submitted a request to extend without changes its section 1115 “Substance Use Disorder (SUD) Demonstration.” The demonstration authorizes Ohio to enhance residential treatment services as a component in the continuum of SUD benefits by permitting receipt of federal funding for treatment in institutions for mental diseases.
• Oregon – The Oregon Health Insurance Marketplace announced the release of its annual report showcasing progress in health coverage gains across the state. More than 145,500 Oregonians enrolled for the 2024 plan year with nearly 80% of enrollees applying for and receiving financial assistance.
• Rhode Island – HealthSource RI, the state’s official health insurance Marketplace, announced that it concluded open enrollment with a record level of 34,456 enrollments, of which 9,539 residents were newly enrolled and 24,917 individuals renewed their coverage. HealthSource RI transitioned more than 14,000 former Medicaid enrollees who lost coverage due to the unwinding.
• Washington – Office of Insurance Commissioner (OIC) Mike Kreidler issued a technical assistance advisory (TAA) to all state health insurers as part of its ongoing response to the recent Change Healthcare cybersecurity event. The TAA advises insurers that any healthcare benefit managers they use must be registered with OIC to conduct business in the state.
• Wyoming – The Wyoming Department of Health released the annual Medicaid report for 2023. The report provides an overview of the state’s Medicaid and CHIP programs, enrollment, expenditures and highlights program initiatives.