Medicaid

Two children and their parents are suing the state of Florida, alleging that their Medicaid coverage was terminated without proper notice or a chance to contest the state agency's decision.

Medicaid enrollees in Florida face long wait times to get through to call centers for help reapplying — especially Spanish speakers. With hundreds of thousands of people removed from the state's Medicaid rolls since April — and many of them still eligible for the program — advocates fear a 'fiasco.'

Colleagues with a Latino civil rights organization spent three weeks calling in English and Spanish. They found Spanish speakers waited 2½ hours compared to 36 minutes for English speakers.

New data shows that when people reach out to the Department of Children & Families Services, help is hard to find despite the agency's plans and efforts to contact recipients.

The annual cost of lecanemab treatment quadruples if the expense of brain scans to monitor for bleeds and other associated care is factored in. The full financial toll likely puts it beyond reach for low-income seniors.

The Florida Policy Institute's latest push comes after data shows Florida removed 408,000 people from its Medicaid rolls since April. Only Texas has surpassed Florida's numbers.

Paperwork problems and procedural issues are the driving force behind a surge of people losing Medicaid health care coverage in states like Florida.

The settlement puts the lawsuit on hold while AHCA moves forward with a rule-making process. Plaintiffs alleged that the state’s policy on incontinence supplies violated federal Medicaid law and the ADA.

A key part of the decision would require the state to increase the availability of private-duty nursing that could help children receive care outside of nursing homes. The state says complying is "impossible."

It was centered around part of last year’s state budget which could have opened Medicaid providers to litigation if they didn’t pay a $15 minimum wage to “direct care” workers.

The waivers aim to reduce the risk of eligible families losing Medicaid coverage due to procedural errors.

On this week's Florida Roundup, we discuss Floridians losing their Medicaid coverage, a block on Florida’s Medicaid coverage ban for gender-affirming care and the state's plans to protect environmentally sensitive lands.