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Blog: Medicaid

Healthcare
February 20, 2024

Middlemen Pushing Up Retail Costs of Drugs

The reality is that non-price factors, including several players, are causing net prices to decline and retail prices to increase. Those players include employers, health plans, and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), all of whom have continuously circumvented the system through loopholes and complicated systems of reimbursement that tend to hurt patients
Healthcare
June 13, 2018

Can State Pensioners Pay for Future Medically Necessary Long-term Care?

At some point many people find themselves needing help to care for themselves. For the elderly, nursing homes provide that help, either temporarily or on a long-term basis.   In 2014, there were 1.4 million individuals in nursing homes nation-wide, with 41,255...
Healthcare
June 5, 2018

Bill H.2890: Funding More Problems than Solutions

Studies show that 90 percent of the elderly want to live out their days at home. With familiarity sewn into every corner, home feels warm and secure. Moving to a nursing home can be terrifying, replacing the familiar with the unfamiliar and...
Healthcare
October 23, 2017

Moving the Needle on Healthcare Cost Containment & Reform

Today, Pioneer Institute submitted recommendations to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ Special Senate Committee on Health Care Cost Containment and Reform. Pioneer applauds provisions of the proposed legislation that would reduce emergency room use and re-admissions, expand scope of practice, and embrace telemedicine....
Healthcare, Opportunity
January 29, 2015

What's driving the state's budget gap?

With 2015 revenues off by a sliver ($18 million), the state is facing a $750 million hole in the budget.  My friend at the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, Noah Berger, notes that tax cuts in the 1990s led to decreased state revenues...
Healthcare
October 14, 2014

State Internal Docs Contradict Gov. Patrick: Show $1B Price Tag for ACA Transition

Governor Patrick has now called our Health Connector cost estimate report “politically motivated,” “spurious” and “inaccurate.” He’s gone back and accused Pioneer of “making stuff up out of thin air.” He can employ whatever words he likes, but he cannot deny the cruel...
American Citizenship, Healthcare
September 25, 2014

The Ugly Truth About State Healthcare Costs

Last week, Pioneer Institute released a report showing that the cost of transitioning to an Affordable Care Act-compliant health insurance exchange is likely to top $1 billion over two years. The figure includes $540 million in 2014 for a new transitional Medicaid program...
Healthcare
September 17, 2014

Deval's Big Dig: Responding to the Governor on Connector Report

When we talk about the Big Dig, we talk in big, round numbers. Why?  Because it cost gobs of money. You can debate whether it was worth it, and for years we did. Journalists dug into the story. Careers were dashed and...
Healthcare, Opportunity
July 17, 2013

Promising State "Duals" Pilot (One Care), Late and Losing Carriers

Pioneer has long advocated for reforming the way that healthcare is delivered to those on both Medicaid and Medicare. In fact the idea won the 2012 Better Government Competition. Winners of the 2012 Better Government Competition from Mike Dean on Vimeo. This...
Healthcare
June 19, 2013

10 Questions About ACA/Obamacare Implementation in Massachusetts That Need to be Answered

1.      Why is Massachusetts giving the federal government a free pass to overtake the states right to regulate our insurance marketplace? For an example, see the ongoing saga over rating factors changes, under which 60% of small companies will experience premium increases....