HIMSSCast: Medicaid disenrollments plague federal health officials

Photo: Tetra/Getty Images

As of Sept. 20, more than 7 million people had lost Medicaid coverage due to state redeterminations that haven't always gone smoothly. This week, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced that 500,000 children and families would regain their Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance coverage due to improper disenrollment.

States take very different approaches when it comes to the redetermination process, said John Barkett, managing director at Berkeley Research Group and a former White House Senior Policy Advisor.

For more on Barkett's conversation on Medicaid, CMS' decade-long push to value-based care and the increasing federal focus on health equity and behavioral health, listen to his discussion with Susan Morse, executive editor of Healthcare Finance News.

Talking Points: 

• Medicaid coverage is needed to help both people and hospitals.
• For 10 years across three administrations, the federal government has been pushing for the adoption of value-based care.
• The Making Care Primary Model, among the latest introduced by CMMI, is an effort to bring medical professionals - who aren't already participating - into value-based care.
• Value-based care gives a way for physicians to be reimbursed for the extra services they provide currently without compensation.
• Care coordination in primary care is seen as one of the best ways to move to value-based care. 
• The focus on health equity and behavioral health will continue.

More About This Episode:

Half a million children and families will regain Medicaid coverage

Enrollees largely unaware of Medicaid redetermination process

CMS is testing new primary care model

CMS announces all-payer model for states

Health leaders question how, not if, value-based care should be implemented

Twitter: @SusanJMorse
Email the writer: SMorse@himss.org