Jan, 31, 2025

State Health Updates

  • California
    • In response to the Southern California wildfires, the Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) received approval of several dozen flexibilities to prevent disruptions in healthcare delivery so Medi-Cal members can continue to receive needed care. Key flexibilities of the 1135 waiver approvals include protections for Medi-Cal members, flexibility in provider enrollment and for home and community-based services, and support for clinics.
    • DHCS awarded nearly $65.4 million to 91 organizations to strengthen the California Hub and Spoke System, a model designed to increase access to medications for opioid-use disorder services statewide. 
  • Colorado – Connect for Health Colorado, the state’s official health insurance Marketplace, announced 282,483 Coloradans have enrolled in health insurance for plan year 2025, a 19% increase than the number who enrolled in 2024. A record 13,968 people enrolled in a health insurance plan through Colorado Connect, with the majority of those enrollments part of the OmniSalud program, Colorado’s program for undocumented individuals. Governor Polis and the Division of Insurance are also highlighting that the record number of Colorado Option enrollments accounted for nearly half of the state’s open enrollment activity.
  • Illinois – The Illinois Department of Public Health announced it has awarded $4.5 million to 12 groups across the state funded through Governor JB Pritzker’s 2024 Birth Equity Initiative. The grants, ranging from $100,000 to $700,000, are designed to support innovative, community-based efforts that have the potential to reduce inequities in populations historically at higher risk for adverse birth outcomes. For information on how states can leverage payment to improve maternal health outcomes, see the SHVS issue brief Maternal Health Providers: Enhancing Health Equity Through Payment Parity. 
  • Maryland – The Maryland Health Benefit Exchange announced nearly 250,000 Marylanders enrolled for 2025 coverage through the state’s health insurance Marketplace, an increase by 16%  from last year. Enrollments by young adults ages 18 through 37 grew 21%, with more than two-thirds of them eligible for Maryland’s young adult subsidy, which the General Assembly will consider making permanent this year.
  • Minnesota – The Minnesota Department of Health has issued a request for proposal to conduct a legislative study of administrative spending associated with health insurance coverage and the delivery of healthcare services in Minnesota. The study will identify strategies to reduce unproductive administrative expenditures. Solicitation and submission instructions are available on Minnesota’s statewide procurement system, SWIFT, under ID 2000016615. Responses must be received no later than 3:00 p.m CT, March 4. 
  • Nebraska 
    • The Division of Medicaid and Long-Term Care launched the Prenatal Plus Program, which supports Nebraska Medicaid-eligible pregnant mothers identified by their prenatal healthcare provider as being at risk for negative maternal or infant health outcomes. The program aims to reduce the incidence of low birth weight, pre-term birth, and adverse birth outcomes while addressing lifestyle, behavioral, and nonmedical factors that may impact the health and wellbeing of both mother and child.
    • The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services recently released the Nebraska Vital Statistics Infant Mortality Dashboard. This dashboard includes de-identified aggregate infant mortality data between the years 2005 to 2023 for Nebraska resident infant deaths. 
  • Nevada – Nevada Health Link, the state’s official health insurance Marketplace, announced it reached a record-setting open enrollment period with over 110,000 Nevadans enrolling in coverage. This year’s enrollment is about a 10% increase from last year.
  • New Jersey – The New Jersey Department of Health published a new interactive report illustrating the connections between food insecurity and maternal and infant health challenges, as well as other community conditions that may affect related health outcomes. Using publicly available data, the report shows that maternal and infant health outcomes can be intertwined with the lack of reliable access to healthy foods and other social, environmental, and economic factors that impact a person’s health.   
  • New Mexico – Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham announced that 26 additional rural healthcare providers will receive a combined $40.6 million from the Rural Health Care Delivery Fund, part of the $46 million allocated during the 2024 legislative session. Last fall, $5.4 million was awarded to four rural healthcare organizations that demonstrated their ability to immediately implement services. The funding supports a range of services statewide, including behavioral health, primary care, and maternal and child healthcare. These investments address rural health providers challenges, including geographic isolation and financial constraints.
  • New York – Governor Kathy Hochul announced that $10 million in state funding is available to offer a statewide Youth and Teen Mental Health First Aid program. The State Office of Mental Health will administer the funding to develop a training and certification program that helps New Yorkers identify, understand and respond to signs of mental illnesses and substance-use disorders in young people who may be experiencing a crisis.
  • Oregon – The Oregon Health Authority (OHA) has launched an interactive dashboard to track progress toward the outcomes in the Strategic Plan launched in July of 2024. The dashboard details the strategies and measures under five primary goals: transforming behavioral health, strengthening access to affordable care for all, fostering healthy families and environments, achieving healthy Tribal communities, and building OHA’s internal capacity and commitment to eliminate health inequities.
  • Pennsylvania – The Pennsylvania Insurance Department (PID) established a new process for pharmacies to challenge a health benefit plan’s designation of a specialty drug, which is a critical protection provided by Act 77 of 2024. This referral process allows PID to ensure that pharmacy benefit managers and health insurers only label medications as specialty drugs when appropriate. This process will promote consistent coverage decisions on specialty drugs and protect Pennsylvanians from excessive costs and delays in receiving critical treatments.