CMS ANNOUNCES NAVIGATOR GRANTS
This week, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the list of organizations which had been awarded navigator grants in the federally facilitated marketplace states. To learn more about these navigator awards and for links to the CMS press release and list of organizations receiving navigator grants for OE6, check out our news item.
The funding announced Wednesday represents a significant cut from prior funding levels. As we have stated previously, the American Association on Health and Disability has concerns over the reductions in the navigator funding over the last two years. In July, we joined a letter with 190 organizations addressed to HHS expressing these concerns. HHS did provide a response to the letter at the end of last month.
However, with this week’s announcement, we continue to share the concerns originally raised in the July letter. Families USA has released a statement expressing the importance of the navigator program and concerns of what the navigator funding cuts could do for those who rely on enrollment assistance.
With this week’s announcement of the navigator awards, CMS has also announced the training that is now available for navigators. The full announcement from CMS on the navigator training is available in our news item.
For a detailed statement on the trends in the marketplace and the number of people enrolling in individual coverage, check out the report from the Kaiser Family Foundation released this summer. This report examines the trends of marketplace enrollment over the last several years while the ACA marketplace has been in operation and discusses potential changes in the marketplace for the upcoming open enrollment.
With open enrollment approaching, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) has announced its fall “Beyond the Basics” webinar series to help you get ready. The first webinar on premium tax credits was held yesterday. The topics, dates and times of future webinars can be found in our news item.
The court case of Texas v. Azar has been in the news recently. This is the case which was initiated by several Republican attorneys general challenging the Affordable Care Act’s constitutionality now that the individual mandate penalty has been eliminated. The Georgetown University Center on Health Insurance Reforms has published a blog which looks at what the effect this case would have on a state-by-state basis if the consumer protection provisions of the ACA were found unconstitutional.
The Collaborative on Health Reform and Independent Living (CHRIL) is looking for volunteers for their “Disability Stories Project.” Specifically, they are looking for individuals with disabilities who would be willing to share how the need for health insurance affects choices about participating in disability programs or working. They are also inviting anyone to join between the ages of 18-64 who has a story to tell about how issues in health policy have affected them. To learn more about this project, check out the Disability Stories Project page on the CHRIL website.
If you haven’t seen it, be sure to check out our social media toolkit for Medicaid. The toolkit provides sample social media posts as well as graphics and relevant hashtags which can be combined to promote the importance of the Medicaid program and how important it is for people with disabilities. The toolkit also provides lists of social media accounts to follow, digital materials, our news stories on Medicaid work requirements and Medicaid statistics. The toolkit is available on the NDNRC website where it can be downloaded as a zip drive.
If you want to learn more about our new project with the NIH’s All of Us Research Project, check out the Frequently Asked Questions document about the program.
Are you looking for local partners to help with outreach to the disability community? The NDNRC has Community Outreach Collaboratives (COCs) which work to increase collaborations in the community, dissemination and outreach efforts and enrollment of people with disabilities in the ACA marketplace. You can find a COC, on the COC page of our website.
Archives of our weekly updates are available on the NDNRC website.