Medicaid

75 percent of Illinois Medicaid cases reviewed last week had eligibility errors

By Jonathan Ingram
10/18/2013
In January, the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, or HFS, began a new project verifying eligibility for Illinois’ 2.7 million Medicaid enrollees. For years, state workers had failed to take adequate steps to ensure the people receiving Medicaid benefits were actually eligible for the program. As an Auditor General report noted, state workers failed to...

TAGS: AFSCME: American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, HFS: Healthcare and Family Services, Medicaid

ObamaCare: Quinn touts 100K enrollees; all in Medicaid

By Naomi Lopez Bauman
10/17/2013
Gov. Pat Quinn has been touting 100,000 new Cook County enrollees as evidence of ObamaCare’s success. The reality is that this claim reflects both desperate and creative government accounting. The governor was referring to 100,000 people who enrolled in the state’s Medicaid expansion program earlier this year under an early pilot project in Cook County....

TAGS: ACA: Affordable Care Act, Cook County, Get Covered Illinois, Medicaid, Pat Quinn

ObamaCare: Who is eligible for coverage?

By Naomi Lopez Bauman
10/14/2013
Under the Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as ObamaCare, individuals are required to have health insurance coverage by Jan. 1, 2014, or pay a fine. This provision of the law is called the individual mandate. There are a number of ways that people can obtain coverage under ObamaCare if they do not currently get...

TAGS: Medicaid

More than 73 percent of Illinois Medicaid cases reviewed last week had eligibility errors

By Jonathan Ingram
10/12/2013
In January, the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, or HFS, began a new project verifying eligibility for Illinois’ 2.7 million Medicaid enrollees. For years, state workers had failed to take adequate steps to ensure the people receiving Medicaid benefits were actually eligible for the program. As an Auditor General report noted, state workers failed to...

TAGS: AFSCME: American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, HFS: Healthcare and Family Services, Medicaid

Nearly 72 percent of Illinois Medicaid cases reviewed last week had eligibility errors

By Jonathan Ingram
10/02/2013
In January, the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, or HFS, began a new project verifying eligibility for Illinois’ 2.7 million Medicaid enrollees. For years, state workers had failed to take adequate steps to ensure the people receiving Medicaid benefits were actually eligible for the program. As an Auditor General report noted, state workers failed to...

TAGS: AFSCME: American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, audit, Medicaid

More than 150,000 Medicaid enrollees found ineligible for the program

By Jonathan Ingram
09/26/2013
In January, the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, or HFS, began a new project verifying eligibility for Illinois’ 2.7 million Medicaid enrollees. For years, state workers had failed to take adequate steps to ensure the people receiving Medicaid benefits were actually eligible for the program. As an Auditor General report noted, state workers failed to...

TAGS: AFSCME: American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, audit, HFS: Healthcare and Family Services, Medicaid, Pat Quinn

Illinois should shun ObamaCare and pursue Rhode Island-style Medicaid reforms

By Naomi Lopez Bauman
08/29/2013
In a recent interview to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s March on Washington, President Barack Obama managed to plug the ObamaCare program by encouraging people to sign up for coverage on a government website. Few can disagree with the goal of affordable health care coverage, especially for the medically needy and poor. While...

TAGS: Medicaid

Thousands more Illinoisans discovered ineligible for Medicaid

By Jonathan Ingram
08/29/2013
In January, the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, or HFS, began a new project verifying eligibility for Illinois’ 2.7 million Medicaid enrollees. For years, state workers had failed to take adequate steps to ensure the people receiving Medicaid benefits were actually eligible for the program. As an Auditor General report noted, state workers...

TAGS: Medicaid

Medicaid expansion won’t reduce unnecessary ER visits

By Jonathan Ingram
05/21/2013
Proponents of ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion insist that the expansion is necessary to keep people out of emergency rooms for preventable conditions such as hypertension, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The only problem? Medicaid patients are more likely than the uninsured to use emergency rooms, especially for preventable conditions. In 2010, medical researchers at the...

TAGS: ACA: Affordable Care Act, ER: emergency room, Medicaid