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Many Kentuckians qualify for dual-needs health coverage
BY NADIA RAMLAGAN KY NEWS CONNECTION Nearly 13 million people nationwide, including the around 2 million people in Kentucky enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid, may qualify for coverage under a Dual Special Needs Plan. Chloe Atwater, health justice attorney at the Kentucky Equal Justice Center, said nearly 40% of the state’s population is low-income. She…
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Lawmakers join KY’s largest addiction treatment provider to oppose Medicaid payment cuts
by Deborah Yetter, Kentucky Lantern July 30, 2024 FRANKFORT — The state’s largest provider of drug and alcohol treatment is warning that looming cuts in Medicaid reimbursement to some providers could damage efforts to curb addiction that has engulfed Kentucky — just as the state is showing improvements. “Kentucky has made significant strides in access…
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Former Inez lawyer climbed out of alcoholism, launched a recovery boom
BY DEBORAH YETTER KENTUCKY LANTERN LOUISA — Around the office at Addiction Recovery Care, Vanessa Keeton is still known as “Client One” — marking her status as the first client of the first recovery center ARC opened as a group home in Lawrence County. But her official title is vice president of marketing, where she…
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Wheeler, regional stakeholders celebrate Senate Bill 280 becoming law
FRANKFORT — Gov. Andy Beshear held a ceremonial bill signing of Sen. Phillip Wheeler’s Senate Bill 280 Friday afternoon. The bill creates a new program to allow classified rural hospitals to receive the same Medicaid reimbursements that either the University of Kentucky College of Medicine or the University of Louisville School of Medicine normally receive.…
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Whipsawed by the system, dozens of independent pharmacies closed in Kentucky last year, and more are expected to follow suit
KENTUCKY HEALTH NEWS In the past year, at least 67 independent pharmacies have closed in Kentucky, and more are expected to close because of a recent change in the system that favors big pharmacy chains. So reports Alex Acquisto of the Lexington Herald-Leader in a significant story for rural Kentucky. “Pharmacists are often the first…
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Lost in the mix of ‘unwinding’ Medicaid to its normal procedures: The state can cut off your health care over a technical error
BY RACHANA PRADHAN KFF HEALTH NEWS The day her Medicaid coverage ended, Beverly Likens was in the hospital after a scary trip to the emergency room. The resident of Martin, Ky., in Floyd County, was diagnosed with severe anemia and given a blood transfusion after her hemoglobin levels had plummeted. Likens, 48 at the time,…
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Kentucky first state with automatic Medicaid renewal for children
BY MELISSA PATRICK KENTUCKY HEALTH NEWS Kentucky has received federal approval to automatically renew coverage for children in Medicaid or the Kentucky Children’s Health Insurance Program for 12 months. “Kentucky is the first state in the country to implement this kind of flexibility,” Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman said in making the announcement Thursday. “It went…
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In the first two months of resumed checks for Medicaid eligibility, almost half of Kentucky members up for renewal lost their coverage
BY MELISSA PATRICK KENTUCKY HEALTH NEWS The end of the pandemic meant resumption of eligibility verification for Medicaid, and almost half of the Kentuckians who have been asked to renew their Medicaid coverage in the first two months of verification have lost it, mainly because they did not respond. Of the 153,386 people asked to…
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Federal Medicaid renewal coming soon
Kentuckians who received benefits during pandemic must participate in the annual renewal FRANKFORT — Due to action by Congress, Gov. Andy Beshear reminded Kentuckians the federal pandemic benefit that made it easier for low-income families to sign up for free health care is changing. Starting this year, Medicaid enrollees must once again participate in an…
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Beshear says ‘it’s time’ to end U.S. COVID emergency, set May 11, but notes expiring programs; estimated 260,000 to lose Medicaid
BY MELISSA PATRICK KENTUCKY HEALTH NEWS Gov. Andy Beshear agreed with President Biden’s decision to end the COVID-19 public health emergency on May 11, a decision that will bring an end to several programs that were put in place to help people during the worst of the pandemic. “I think it’s time,” Beshear said at…
Tag: Medicaid
