Advocacy News: March 2024
Word From Washington Federal Agencies According to the latest KFF Medicaid Unwinding Enrollment Tracker, more than 19 million Americans have lost Medicaid coverage since states were allowed to resume eligibility verifications following the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE). At least 70 percent of Medicaid terminations continue to be for procedural reasons (such as not returning […]
Advocacy News: February 2024
Word From Washington State of the States
Word from Washington: January 2024
On January 16, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services withdrew its appeal in the litigation over HHS’s copay accumulator adjuster regulation. Patient groups including HFA applauded this latest development in the lawsuit. As a reminder, patient groups led by the HIV + Hepatitis Policy Institute had filed suit against HHS, challenging its 2021 […]
Word from Washington: December 2023
Mid-December, for many people, marked the close of the open enrollment period for health insurance plans that will provide coverage beginning January 1, 2024. Preliminary data shows that enrollment in Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace coverage during the open enrollment period continued to grow at a record-breaking pace. The federal government projects that over 19 […]
Word from Washington: November 2023
HFA returned to Capitol Hill on Nov. 13 for its tenth annual Patient Fly-in and Congressional reception. Twenty-two community members from 16 different states came to Washington, D.C., for policy and advocacy briefings, followed by meetings on Capitol Hill with 35 Congressional offices. Advocates asked lawmakers to support the HELP Copays Act (H.R. 830, S. […]
Word from Washington: October 2023
Hemophilia Federation of America and allied patient advocates cheered a Sept. 29 court decision setting aside a federal rule that harms people who rely on copay assistance. The rule at issue permitted health plans to implement so-called “copay accumulator adjuster programs” (CAAPs)—strategies whereby health plans accept copay assistance, but refuse to credit those amounts toward […]
Word from Washington: September 2023
On Sept. 18, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released final regulations that will make it easier for millions of people who receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI) to access help with their Medicare costs, through enrollment in the Medicare Savings Program (MSP). MSPs are eligibility groups through which a state Medicaid program pays […]
Word from Washington: August 2023
Advocates are responding to yet another payer-side, cost-saving scheme that harms patient access to medicine. The latest version, the so-called “alternative funding program” (AFP), is a shady strategy pitched to employers that promises to lower health plan spending on specialty drugs such as bleeding disorder products and other expensive medicines. AFP vendors advise employer health […]
Word from Washington: July 2023
July saw mounting coverage losses from the national Medicaid unwinding. As of July 28, nearly four million people have been disenrolled from Medicaid since redeterminations began in April 2023. Three-quarters of that total lost coverage for procedural reasons, i.e., paperwork, and may still be eligible for Medicaid. In response to this dismaying track record: Also […]
Word from Washington: June 2023
Medicaid disenrollments are now underway in about 40 states, as part of the Medicaid “unwinding.” Medicaid unwinding, recall, is shorthand for the resumption of regular Medicaid eligibility reviews and terminations, following a three-year pause during the COVID public health emergency. Unfortunately, early reports from 26 states show that at more than 1.5 million Medicaid […]
English 
Español de Puerto Rico