MICHAEL MARTZ Richmond Times-Dispatch Dr. Cynthia Southern expects the phone to ring often in her Pulaski County dental office beginning next Thursday, when Virginia expands its Medicaid program to provide a comprehensive dental benefit to poor adults. More than 750,000 Virginians will become eligible for a benefit that the state believes will transform their health, help them land jobs and make eating a pleasure again. âA lot of people in our area are going to use that benefit,â said Southern, whose practice in the town of Pulaski serves not only the county, but also surrounding jurisdictions in the mountains of rural Southwest Virginia. âI think itâs a pretty big problem.â
5 Things Virginia: Capitol insiders, How COVID has changed us, Plan-provider relations DJ Wilson | Apr 20, 2021 Share this: Next week is our 2021 Virginia State of Reform Health Policy Conference with more than 60 speakers curated for you. These are some of the most important leaders in Virginia health care and health policy. This newsletter features things that we think are important to watch. And, our Convening Panel has told us the things that they think are important to watch, and have featured them on the Topical Agenda next week. So, it makes sense that we feature some of the agenda topics next week because they reflect some of the most pressing challenges and opportunities faced in Virginia health care.
MICHAEL MARTZ Richmond Times-Dispatch Kathy Springston wasnât sure she had heard correctly when Carla Torres-Barrera quoted her a new price for health insurance. Instead of paying almost $440 a month, Springston will pay about $291 a month for the same insurance she has now through the federally run insurance marketplace established under the Affordable Care Act, a savings of $149 a month. âI had to ask her, âIs this right?ââ she said. By the time she turns 65 and qualifies for Medicare next fall, Springston estimates she will save $745 in insurance premium costs. She plans to invest the money in acupuncture or other ways to address her sciatica condition that arenât covered by traditional insurance.
Virginia expands Medicaid access for legal immigrants (Source: Ned Oliver, Virginia Mercury) By Cameron Jones | Capital News Service | April 13, 2021 at 5:31 PM EDT - Updated April 13 at 7:40 PM RICHMOND, Va. Ni Kin became a permanent resident in 2002 at 70 years old, but she was unable to work after moving from Myanmar to Virginia due to mobility problems. Kin required more medical attention related to her condition as she aged, but was unable to see a doctor because she didn’t have insurance, according to her grandson Tin Myint. Kin didn’t qualify for Medicaid due to a state rule requiring permanent residents to present 10 years of work history to use public health insurance, Myint said. Kin also did not qualify for no-premium Medicare, since she never worked in the country and does not qualify for Social Security benefits.
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1. Q&A: Karen Kimsey, DMAS Director Karen Kimsey, Director of the Virginia Dept. of Medical Assistance Services, recently joined me for a conversation on lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic, the next steps for improving the safety net, and DMAS’s plans to get beneficiaries vaccinated. She also described a recent health issue that brought her in direct contact with the challenges of a health care system she helps maintain and regulate. Kimsey says her health experience has made her even more passionate about making sure people are able to access coverage. But she says, “It is not only being able to gain access to health coverage, but it’s also the ability to use the coverage, knowing what to do, and being able to advocate for yourself.”
U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Rev. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) are introducing legislation to incentivize Medicaid expansion nationwide.
Virginia is moving toward a new way of insuring people with the highest medical costs as a way to bring down health insurance premiums, especially for residents who don t receive federal subsidies to offset costs that averaged almost $650 a month last year. House Bill 2332, proposed by Del. Mark Sickles, D-Fairfax, would direct the State Corporation Commission to seek a federal waiver that would cover more than 80% of the cost of creating a reinsurance program for insuring the most expensive consumers, while assessing a 1% fee on all insurance policies to pay the state s share - over the objection of insurers. In 14 states that have created such programs, this has reduced costs for the rest of the folks who buy individual plans, Sickles told the House Appropriations Committee, which endorsed the bill by a 15-7 vote on Monday, with all but two Republicans voting no.
President Joe Biden signed an executive order Thursday to reopen the Affordable Care Act s federal health insurance Marketplace for an additional three months, giving individuals and families who have lost health coverage during the coronavirus pandemic the chance to enroll outside of the ACA s traditional six-week Open Enrollment period. The new Open Enrollment period will begin February 15 and run through May 15. During this time, any uninsured individual may apply for and enroll in health coverage through the ACA. The announcement to reopen the Marketplace comes at a time of a national public health crisis. An estimated five million people have lost health coverage nationwide because of job losses caused by COVID-19. More than 90,000 of those individuals are from