A move in more than a dozen states to impose work requirements as a condition of Medicaid coverage could not only result in people losing health insurance, but could also impact hospitals’ revenue, increase uncompensated care costs and have a detrimental economic effect on local communities, according to a new Commonwealth Fund report. Rural hospitals could be especially hard hit, the report noted.
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All patients should be confident as they count on their hospital to be their lifeline to access care in their community. And all communities should be able to look to their hospitals as stable hubs for both health care and economic growth. Funding cuts proposed in the White House budget undermine that confidence as they threaten the viability of hospital care.
Read MoreBy introducing Senate Study Bill 1197 and House Study Bill 206, Gov. Kim Reynolds offered Iowa the opportunity to establish the governance structure to implement core mental health services for children and families uniformly across Iowa. After decades of discussion and growing public support, these two bills take a huge step toward establishing a children’s mental health system.
Read MoreIn a practice that policy experts say smothers competition and keeps prices high, drug companies routinely make hidden pacts with middlemen that effectively block patients from getting cheaper generic medicines. Such agreements “make it difficult for generics to compete or know what they’re competing against,” said Stacie Dusetzina, an associate professor of health policy at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.
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