In December 2018 a federal district court declared the Affordable Care Act (ACA) individual mandate unconstitutional. It also declared the remaining provisions of the act “inseverable,” meaning also invalid. The court didn’t issue a nationwide injunction which would have had the effect of immediately ceasing all aspects of law.
In the district court litigation the Department of Justice (DOJ) didn’t defend the individual mandate. But it did argue that other provisions of the ACA, excluding the guaranteed-issue and community-rating requirements, which were intended to provide affordable health insurance for those with pre-existing conditions, were severable. Now DOJ has informed the Fifth Circuit that it has changed course and agrees with the lower court that the entire ACA was properly invalidated.
|
Few if any U.S. states have been hit harder than Ohio by the crushing rise in drug use, abuse and overdose deaths. That state’s rate of overdose deaths was second in the nation in 2017: 46.5 per 100,000. Behind those numbers, too, are tragic stories that have personally touched many Ohio legislators — and helped lead their ongoing search for policy solutions.
“For multiple years, multiple general assemblies, it has been a legislative priority,” says Ohio Sen. Jay Hottinger, a member of the General Assembly since 1995. “If you wrote just a paragraph on each bill, it would be about 17 or 18 pages.”
He was a sponsor of one of Ohio’s most recently passed bills — last year’s SB 119, known as Daniel’s law in honor of a young Ohio man who died from an opioid overdose after years of fighting addiction. Daniel Weidle had found success in his fight through the use of naltrexone (one of the medications federally approved for treatment of opioid-use disorder), but after losing his provider, Daniel got turned down several times in trying to refill his prescription.
|
At the same time the federal government has announced a new emphasis on reviewing how well states enforce Medicaid eligibility rules, it has offered a new tool to help states improve accuracy and speed up the eligibility determination process.
In June 2018, the Trump administration announced new initiatives to increase Medicaid program integrity. These initiatives include assuring that states effectively enforce Medicaid beneficiary eligibility rules. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) estimates that improper Medicaid payments totaling $11.3 billion were made in 2017 because of state errors in eligibility determinations.
|
In March, ADAPT Pharma, a subsidiary of Emergent BioSolutions and CSG Associate, announced the expansion of its program offering free NARCAN Nasal Spray – the leading community use naloxone – to U.S. high schools and eligible colleges and universities. NARCAN Nasal Spray 4mg is the only FDA-approved, needle-free formulation of naloxone for the emergency treatment of a known or suspected opioid overdose. As part of this effort, ADAPT Pharma will:
• Expand free NARCAN Nasal Spray availability by eliminating the prior 20,000 cartons cap for eligible colleges and universities
• Double the allocation to high schools from one free carton (two 4mg doses) to two free cartons (four 4mg doses)
• Extend the term of the free NARCAN Nasal Spray offer until it is in every high school and eligible college and university in the United States
|
A first-of-its-kind study in Minnesota details a dramatic rise in the use of telemedicine in that state. Between 2010 and 2015, the state’s number of “virtual visits” jumped from 11,113 to 86,238. These new findings, the result of research conducted by the state Department of Health and University of Minnesota School of Public Health, show that telemedicine “may be emerging as an option to overcome some of the geographical barriers of accessing specialty care,” state Commissioner of Health Jan Malcolm says.
|
Two states in the Midwest have new laws in place that aim to improve the safety of nurses and other health care professionals. The Illinois General Assembly passed HB 4100 in response to two high-profile incidents. In one case, the Chicago Tribune reports, two nurses were taken hostage after an inmate being treated at their hospital got hold of a corrections officer’s gun. One of the nurses was sexually assaulted before police fatally shot the inmate. A month later, a nursing assistant and corrections officer were taken hostage at another hospital.
|
In October, the Trump Administration adopted new rules for short-term (or “skinny”) health insurance plans. Since then, some states have weighed in by adopting new rules of their own, while also reminding insurers that they must still comply with state-level regulations.
|
Realizing many youth lack access to healthy food and have limited opportunities to spend time outdoors, The Scotts Miracle-Gro Foundation, the philanthropic partner of Hawthorne Gardening Company, a CSG Associate, is partnering with the National Head Start Association, or NHSA, to improve access for a million children. Its multiyear partnership seeks to bring the powerful, life-enhancing benefits of gardens to one million at-risk Head Start children and families across the country each year through the development of edible gardens and hands-on garden education.
|
While a federal district court struck down the Affordable Care Act as unconstitutional on December 14, the Act and the litigation will continue. The judge didn’t issue a nationwide injunction which would have had the effect of immediately ceasing all aspects of law.
Unsurprisingly, the states defending the law have stated they will appeal this ruling to the Eleventh Circuit. Particularly if the Eleventh Circuit agrees with the lower court the Supreme Court is likely to hear this case though not until its next term beginning October 2019.
The Affordable Care Act individual mandate required uninsured who didn’t purchase health insurance to pay a so-called shared-responsibility payment. In 2012 the Supreme Court held the individual mandate is a constitutional “exercise of Congress’s Tax Power because it triggered a tax.” The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 reduced the tax to $0 as of January 1, 2019.
|
In the face of the devastating opioid crisis, states are confronted with financing and regulating complex -- and often disconnected -- systems of services to treat opioid use disorder. A comprehensive, sustainable service system must include a robust mix of high-quality treatment for acute needs linked to long-term supports for care maintenance with wraparound supports. This session provided an opportunity to hear from state leaders about the keys to creating and financing a high-functioning system to serve people with this disorder and their communities.
This session was presented in partnership with the Pew Charitable Trusts and their Substance Use Prevention and Treatment Initiative.
|
