State Health Updates
- Colorado – The Department of Health Care Policy and Financing published its Fiscal Year 2022-23 Department Health Equity Plan. The report identifies four initial Health First Colorado (Colorado’s Medicaid program) health disparity areas of focus, including: COVID-19 vaccination rates, maternal care, behavioral health and prevention.
- Connecticut – The state’s Medicaid program, HUSKY Health, will shift to paying for maternity care using a bundled payment in 2023, rather than paying fee-for-service. The plan to adopt a maternity bundle is part of Department of Social Services’ overarching goal to move toward paying for equitable care in a value-based way.
- Florida – Florida health officials announced the expansion of a pilot substance use network of care, Coordinated Opioid Recovery. The program was piloted in Palm Beach County and will be expanding in up to twelve counties. The state also announced the appointment of a Statewide Director of Opioid Recovery.
- Georgia – On August 9, CMS informed the state of the suspension of Part II of Georgia’s waiver, the Georgia Access Model. On July 27, 2022, the state responded to a letter from CMS informing officials that its previously approved Section 1332 was at risk of being suspended, unless the state submitted a corrective action plan that would bring the waiver program into compliance with federal requirements.
- Idaho – The state released a request for proposals for a quality improvement organization to provide services including utilization management, case management, and external quality reviews for the state Medicaid program.
- Mississippi – The Mississippi Division of Medicaid announced its intent to award contracts for its Mississippi Coordinated Access Network (MississippiCAN) Medicaid program and the state Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to Centene/Magnolia Health Plan, Molina Healthcare, and TrueCare in partnership with CareSource.
- New Jersey – Governor Phil Murphy and Acting Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin announced the allocation of $10 million in federal American Recovery Plan funds to continue funding for the State’s Hospital-Based Violence Intervention Programs (HVIPs), which directly help gun violence victims and serve to break the cycle of gun violence. A primary goal of the HVIP is to link hospitals with community-based organizations that are already working hard to assist victims and prevent the spread of violence.
- New Mexico – Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham announced $15 million in Nurse Expansion funding, provided through the American Rescue Plan, to help improve New Mexico’s nurse training and education programs and address nursing shortages.
- Oregon
- Per HB 4035, the Oregon Joint Task Force on the Bridge Health Care Program was created to design a “bridge program” which could offer healthcare coverage to people leaving the Oregon Health Plan (Medicaid) at the end of the PHE. The task force recently convened to hear an update from the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) on their planning for post-public health emergency eligibility renewals.
- OHA released an annual progress report for Healthier Together Oregon (HTO), the State Health Improvement Plan. HTO is a strategic plan to advance health equity. The strategies in the plan are organized into eight implementation areas: equity and justice, healthy communities, housing and food, healthy families, healthy youth, workforce development, behavioral health and technology and health.