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Okla. considers Medicaid expansion

okla

Yet again, a Red State that has fought Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act is considering joining in the expansion, reports Forbes. In the Sooner State, it’s being pushed by low oil prices and state overspending.

Four things to know about the possible expansion:

1. The state could move 175,000 women and children into subsidized coverage while opening Medicaid to 628,000 working-age adults.

2. The cigarette tax might rise 146 percent ( by $1.50 per pack)  to help fund the  expansion.

3. The American Journal of Managed Care said that Oklahoma legislators who had  resisted Medicaid expansion said fiscal realities are driving the reconsideration. Oklahoma’s Medicaid chief, Nico Gomez, said that without expansion, rural providers would not survive and would have to relocate, the journal notes.

4. Talk of Medicaid expansion comes soon after hospitals launched an initiative to get  lawmakers to broaden  coverage under Insure Oklahoma, a state-run insurance program that helps provide health insurance to small-business employees and people who don’t have access to employer-sponsored insurance.


Okla. first state to remove MOC requirement

 

Oklahoma has become the first state to enact a law  to remove maintenance of certification (MOC) as a requirement for physicians to obtain a license, get hired and paid, or get hospital- admitting privileges.

Medscape reported that Kentucky’s governor has signed a more limited measure that prohibits making MOC a condition of licensure.

Similar laws are proposed in other states as the  rebellion against hated MOC programs operating under the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS)  becomes more intense. Physicians have long complained about the cost in time and money of these programs.

Internists and internal medical subspecialists have been the fiercest critics, protesting that the MOC program of the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) in particular wastes their time and money and does little to nothing to improve their patient-care abilities.

 


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