Louisiana is bringing together four child-serving agencies to form a Coordinated System of Care (CSoC) for youth with behavioral health needs, state officials announced last week. By combining efforts from various state agencies, the state hopes to save money, reduce duplicated efforts across agencies and increase the overall outcomes of the children they serve.
Over the last few days, Florida Gov. Rick Scott has been a subject for conversation among some of his fellow governors. Following news of Florida’s rejection of $2 billion in federal grants for high-speed rail, governors from Connecticut, New York, Rhode Island and Maryland sent letters asking US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood for those funds. [...]
Alaska Governor Sean Parnell has announced that the state will not apply for federal grants to implement health insurance exchanges in the wake of a judge’s ruling that the health care reform act is unconstitutional. With this move, Parnell joins a growing number of Governor’s who are turning down federal grants for a variety of [...]
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker continues to define his position on health care reform. On Friday, the Governor signed an executive order creating the office of Free Market Health Care. The office will be tasked with handling the state’s response to new federal health care reform requirements. According to the executive order, the office will be [...]
Illinois Governor Pat Quinn has signed new legislation that will establish comprehensive Medicaid reform in Illinois. The new reforms are designed to allow the Department of Healthcare and Family Services (HFS) to expand coordinated care in Illinois, offer a more efficient prescription drug program and crackdown on waste, fraud and abuse. The reforms are expected [...]
Late last week, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels signed an executive order that directs state agencies “to conditionally establish and operate a state-based healthcare benefit exchange.” Indiana is the latest in a string of states that are both suing the federal government over the Affordable Care Act and preparing to comply with it.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo will convene the first meeting of his Medicaid Redesign Team today. Earlier this week, Gov. Cuomo launched a website to track the Redesign Team’s progress and he has asked New Yorkers to help.
New York’s Office for People With Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD) is a big operation. OPWDD has 22,000 state employees, 800 not-for-profit partners and an annual budget of just over $8 billion. The Office is responsible for helping developmentally disabled New Yorkers receive care and services that will allow them to live richer lives. This means helping [...]
Maine’s Steering Committee on Health Reform and the Maine Advisory Council on Health Systems Development has released its final recommendations on how the state should implement federal health care reform requirements. There were 14 public meetings and a public hearing on the draft report to assure public input on this controversial slate of issues. According [...]
Alabama’s Medicaid Agency will receive a $55 million federal performance bonus for its efforts to enroll more low-income children into Medicaid. The award is based on the state’s performance for the 2010 fiscal year and marks the second consecutive year that Alabama has earned the largest federal performance bonus. 14 other states received smaller performance [...]
