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The Trump administration is finalizing a plan to let states convert a chunk of Medicaid funding to block grants, even as officials remain divided over how to sell the controversial change to the safety net health program. CMS Administrator Seema Verma plans to issue a letter soon explaining how states could seek waivers to receive defined payments for adults covered by Obamacare's Medicaid expansion, according to seven people with knowledge of the closely guarded effort. An announcement is tentatively slated for the end of next week, more than one year after Verma and her team began developing the plan. (Diamond, 1/23)

Medicaid advisory staff on Thursday said policymakers will need to focus on how to improve care coordination and align state-level policies and programs to speed up a reduction in the number of babies born with neonatal abstinence syndrome. The rate of babies born with neonatal abstinence syndrome grew about three-fold from 2008 to 2016 for newborn hospitalizations where Medicaid was the expected payer, according to the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission staff at a meeting Thursday. The rise in neonatal abstinence syndrome paralleled a rapid increase in the number of pregnant women suffering from opioid use disorder. (Brady, 1/23)

It’s becoming a familiar scene across Texas: a parent brings her child to the doctor for a checkup. She signs in at the front desk. Only then does she learn that her child has been kicked off her health insurance—a casualty of missing paperwork and hoops she didn’t know existed. Next comes the awful decision: Pay out of pocket or delay the appointment, skipping critical care like vaccinations against measles, which is seeing a resurgence in Texas and around the country. (Novack, 1/22)

Thousands of New Mexicans who are enrolled in the Medicaid program could end up losing their eligibility because of the recent increase in the state’s minimum wage. Starting Jan. 1, base pay rose to $9 an hour, marking the first in a series of increases in New Mexico’s minimum wage that will top out at $12 an hour in 2023. (1/23)

While a move to switch Medicaid to a managed care system in North Carolina is on indefinite hold, several companies rejected by state health officials for lucrative managed care contracts are still vying for seats at the table. If N.C. Administrative Law Judge Tenisha Jacobs agrees with lawyers in her Raleigh courtroom this week who claim the selection process was flawed, it will throw yet another wrench into the already beleaguered transition of the state’s massive Medicaid program to managed care. “They’re asking you to go in and basically rework the [selection] process,” Mary Mandeville, an attorney for AmeriHealth Caritas North Carolina, a company that did get one of the state’s four statewide slots, said in arguments to Jacobs. “If that Pandora’s box is opened, other offerors are going to want to do that.” (Ovaska, 1/24)

The CMS announced Thursday that the eight online tools designed for Medicare beneficiaries and their caregivers to make healthcare choices will be combined later this year. The agency said the changes will allow users to have a "streamlined experience" on Medicare.gov. (Castellucci, 1/23)