September 30, 2019
September 30, 2019, Axios, Bob Herman  - Do a quick search for health insurance, and you'll find plenty of ads for "Trumpcare" plans that cost $59 or less per month. But there's a catch: Trumpcare doesn't exist, and many of these advertised plans offer bare-bones coverage. For people who buy health insurance on their own instead of receiving it through an employer, searching for a plan is already challenging. And deceptive marketing only makes it harder, especially when these plans will leave consumers on the hook for potentially ruinous medical bills.
September 27, 2019, The Clarion Ledger, Bill Moak, Consumer Watch  - I f you purchased your own health insurance in 2018, you could soon be getting a check from your insurance company. A total of 62,563 Mississippians will soon be getting a check or policy credit, totaling $31.8 million. Most people who are owed a refund or premium credit should get it by mid-October.
Because of a provision in the Affordable Care Act, health insurance companies must spend at least 80 percent of the premiums they collect to pay for medical claims or "quality improvement," leaving the remainder for administrative costs, marketing and profit. (For large group plans, the number is 85 percent.) Failing to meet this "Medical Loss Ratio" threshold means they must issue the difference to consumers in the form of rebates.
September 27, 2019, Modern Healthcare, Michael Brady -   The CMS on Friday released a new tool designed to help employers decide if they should offer their workers individual coverage health reimbursement arrangements. Earlier this year, the CMS finalized a rule that allows employers to give their employees tax-free money to buy health insurance on the individual market through an HRA beginning in January 2020. The tool offers employers access to health insurance premium data based on location. It also provides rate information for the cheapest plan in a category like the lowest-cost silver plan, which depends on a worker's age and location.
Employers can use the tool to figure out how much it would cost them to fund an individual HRA. And large employers can use it to decide if the coverage that they want to offer through an HRA conforms with the Affordable Care Act's employer affordability mandate.
September 26, 2019, The Hill, Jordain Carney -   Senate Democrats took action this week that will force a floor vote on a Trump administration rule that loosens ObamaCare waiver restrictions.The move by Democrats, led by Sen. Mark Warner (Va.), paves the way for a recorded vote on whether to roll back a rule that makes it easier for insurance plans to qualify for waivers from ObamaCare's requirements. Democrats are able to force a vote on the Trump administration guidance under the Congressional Review Act (CRA). Under the CRA they have to force a vote by Nov. 12. The resolution, backed by every senator who caucuses with the Democrats, needs a simple majority to pass, meaning Democrats would need to pick up four GOP senators.
September 26, 2019, The Hattiesburg American, Sarah Fowler  -   The Mississippi State Department of Health confirmed Thursday the state's first death related to vaping. However, it did not say if the victim was the same person identified by a coroner last week as the likely victim.  On Sept. 17, Anna Russell, 27, of Smithville, died at North Mississippi Medical Center/Gilmore/Amory, 12 hours after she had been admitted to the hospital, Monroe County Coroner Alan Gurley previously said.    Russell had a "history of using vape pens," and  her death is believed to be vaping-related , he said.   Monday, the health department issued a press release announcing  three vaping-related illnesses  statewide. In the release, they stated, "currently, there are no confirmed vaping-related deaths in the state."  Thursday, they issued the release saying, "Today the Mississippi State Department of Health (MSDH) reports its first vaping-associated death. The death was in an individual under the age of 30."
September 26, 2019, The Hill, Owen  Daugherty  - 
A hospital in Memphis will fully clear or significantly reduce the unpaid debt owed by about 7,000 patients, the  Memphis Commercial Appeal  newspaper in Tennessee reports.  The debt reductions apply to patients engaged in legal proceedings with Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare, the largest nonprofit health care system in Memphis.  The move comes after  reporting from ProPublica  earlier this year revealed the hospital system regularly sued low-income patients over unpaid medical bills. The reporting discovered that the nonprofit filed more than 8,300 lawsuits against patients from 2014 to 2018.  The hospital announced policy changes in July in response to the reporting, changes that the hospital now says are taking effect.

September 26, 2019, Daily Journal, Shirley L. Smith  -  When Travis Patten became Adams County's sheriff in 2016, he never thought he would be thrust into the role of social worker, fielding calls from desperate families looking for help for loved ones having a mental health crisis. "When a family member calls me, they are at their wit's end with whatever is going on with their loved one, and they have nowhere else to turn but me, so I have to do something, but I need help, too," Patten said. Patten is one of numerous law enforcement officers in Mississippi and around the country on the front lines of psychiatric care, whose resources are stretched due to inadequate mental health treatment and support for people with serious mental illnesses.
September 26, 2019, Daily Journal, Michaela Gibson Morris   - 
As the public is focused on the emergence of vaping-related lung disease, public health officials and educators are equally worried about the rapid rise in vaping among high school students. 
"Five million American teenagers are vaping right now," said Robert McMillen, Mississippi State University researcher and professor who led the Mississippi Youth Tobacco Survey. "What is going to happen with that addiction is really alarming." Even though e-cigarettes are illegal for people under 18 to purchase, the Mississippi Youth Tobacco Survey found that vaping among high school students grew from 11.5 percent to 21.6 percent between 2017 and 2018. Based on the survey results, researchers estimate 28,189 Mississippi public high school students were using e-cigarettes last fall. By comparison, the survey estimated 9,000 Mississippi high school students smoke cigarettes, 6.9 percent.
September 26, 2019, The Hill, Justin Coleman  -
A new health care pilot program will launch through Walmart's Sam's Club in October, designed to assist those who avoid health care because of costs. Sam's Club members in Michigan, Pennsylvania and North Carolina will be permitted to buy one of four bundles that provide discounts to add to insurance and/or out-of-pocket payments through the Sam's Club Care Accelerator Together with Humana, according to a Sam's Club press release. Sam's Club Health and Wellness senior vice president Lori Flees told The Associated Press that the program could eventually move to other states to assist people who would normally ignore health problems due to the cost of addressing them. "We are lowering the barrier for people to take care of themselves," Flees said.

September 25, 2019, SunHerald, Mary Perez  - Located at 1434 East Central Avenue in Wiggins, the hospital is a 25-bed facility with a Level 4 ER Trauma Center that operates 24/7, according to the website.
September 23, 2019, The Washington Post, Paige Winfield Cunningham  -
Doctors may prevail over insurers in the  effort  to halt surprise medical bills. Here's why: They have a lot of sympathy from members of Congress, many of whom are physicians themselves.
But the whole effort is threatened by intense, behind-the-scenes lobbying by doctor and insurer groups, which are bickering over what the solution should look like with an eye toward protecting their own bottom lines.  "I think it's fair to say that action on surprise medical billing looks quite a bit less certain than it did just a few months back. That doesn't mean the odds are zero," said Ben Ippolito, a health-care economist at the conservative think tank  American Enterprise Institute . "Surprise billing seemed like as sure of a shot as we had for a bipartisan piece of legislation."
Resource of the week
September 24, 2019, Kaiser Family Issue Brief, Samantha Artiga and Olivia Pham -  Recently there have been declines in Medicaid and CHIP enrollment, reversing a previous trend of increases following implementation of the ACA.1 Administrative data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) show that total Medicaid and CHIP enrollment declined by 2.4 million, from 74.6 million enrollees in December 2017 to 72.2 million enrollees in June 2019.2 Some of this decline may reflect people moving to other coverage due to the improving economy, as noted by the Trump administration and some state officials.3 However, survey data show that the uninsured rate increased from 7.9% to 8.5% between 2017 and 2018, driven by decreases in Medicaid and CHIP coverage.4 Moreover, experiences in some states suggest that renewal process requirements and growing use of periodic eligibility checks may be contributing to disenrollment among people who are still eligible for coverage as well as increased churn in coverage. This brief reviews current rules and state processes related to renewal and periodic eligibility reviews and discusses potential process issues that may be contributing to Medicaid and CHIP enrollment declines.



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