Clip files / Local news from the states
Clip files / Local news from the states
This column features selected short items about state health care policy.
Panel approves TennCare rewrite, reserves comment
NASHVILLE,TN—Gov. Don Sundquist’s sweeping TennCare rewrite won substantive approval from a legislative oversight committee, despite objections from medical providers and patient advocates.
The TennCare Oversight Committee voted 9-2 to endorse one key section that asks the federal government to waive seven specific Medicaid law provisions. But the committee avoided directly addressing the controversial program changes, which would divide and shrink TennCare, remove an estimated $475 million in federal funds from the state’s health system, and strike at least 180,000 people from TennCare’s rolls. Sundquist’s plan has drawn opposition from all of the major health provider groups and advocacy organizations linked to TennCare.
—Memphis Commercial-Appeal, Dec. 6, 2001
Nebraska’s infant mortality stats worrisome
LINCOLN, NE—Infant deaths in Nebraska increased by 10% last year because more babies died of sudden infant death syndrome, birth defects, and maternal health problems. The increase came despite recent efforts by the state to investigate Nebraska’s high mortality rate. During the 1990s, about 180 babies died in the state each year — a rate higher than the national average.
"This isn’t what we were hoping for," said Richard Raymond, MD, the Nebraska Health and Human Services System’s chief medical officer. He leads a panel appointed in 1999 by Gov. Mike Johanns to investigate the infant mortality rate.
According to new state health statistics, 178 Nebraska babies under 1 year old died last year, compared with 162 in 1999. That put the state’s rate at 7.2 deaths for every 1,000 infants born in Nebraska in 2000, compared with a rate of 6.8 in 1999. Last year’s infant mortality rate would have been even higher if not for the high number of births last year, Mr. Raymond said.
Nebraska recorded 24,643 births, the most since 1985. The state’s top medical experts have been puzzled over why infants are dying at a higher rate in Nebraska.
—Associated Press, Dec. 6, 2001
Agency reconsiders dropping Medicaid for 4,000 Iowans
DES MOINES, IA—A Department of Human Services panel changed its mind about dropping 4,000 Iowans from the Medicaid program after hearing pleas from Lt. Gov. Sally Pedersen.
Ms. Pedersen asked the Council on Human Services, the agency’s policy-making board, for more time to find alternatives to cutting off the "medically needy." That’s the term used for Iowans — many of them disabled adults and the elderly — whose limited resources keep them just above the eligibility line for medical services.
The reversal followed a discussion by board members on how to trim $18.6 million from Medicaid spending to comply with 4.3% cutbacks ordered in state government this year.
—Des Moines Register, Dec. 13, 2001
Barriers to kids’ dental care found
RALEIGH, NC—Medicaid recipients in North Carolina find far too many barriers when seeking dental care for their children, a UNC Chapel Hill study concludes. The study, published in the January issue of the American Journal of Public Health, examined the attitudes of Medicaid recipients. "Low-income populations have to worry about so many things in their lives, and as this study pointed out, they have to negotiate multiple barriers in order not only to find and access care, but also receive acceptable care," said Mahyar Modifi, a dentist and one of the study’s authors.
The study said finding dentists who accept Medicaid patients is just one of the hurdles recipients face. Other barriers cited by Medicaid patients who were interviewed included longer waiting-room stays, language barriers for Hispanics, demeaning behavior by front-office personnel, policies that restrict visits, and lack of transportation. Modifi said raising reimbursements should be the first of many steps to improve dental care.
—Associated Press, Dec. 28, 2001
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