On Thursday, March 26 the House of Representatives took up the SRG “doc fix” bill and passed it in overwhelming bipartisan fashion by a vote of 392 to 37. The legislation (HR 2), if enacted, will not only permanently replace what has become an almost annual ritual of supplanting the current provider payments through Medicare
The House of Representatives started the process last Tuesday when the Budget Committee unveiled its resolution. It includes more than $5.5 trillion in cuts over 10 years. It would do this by converting Medicaid into a block grant to states and reducing projected funding by $913 billion over that ten year period. It would repeal
HHS through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) has unveiled new resources and information on the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV). The new information includes an Issue Brief which begins to shed light on the significant impact that the program is having in just a few short years. The number of
The National Health Collaborative on Violence and Abuse (NHCVA) hosted a Capitol Hill briefing on Wednesday on the Impact of Exposure to Violence and Abuse on Children and Youth : Implications for Health and Education Policy. Dr Robert Block, University of Oklahoma and the American Academy of Pediatrics, focused on the ACEs (adverse childhood experiences)
A report by the Inspector General (IG) for HHS indicates that children in foster care are not receiving required health screenings. The report comes after a November 2014 IG report that found that there were significant shortfalls in health screening for all children enrolled in Medicaid. The new report, Not All Children in Foster Care
On Tuesday Capitol Hill was also the setting for a briefing on the reintroduction of the Family-based Foster Care Services Act of 2015. The legislation, S 429 and HR 835, would clarify in Medicaid policy the definition of therapeutic foster care that is consistent and could be applied through all the states. TFC is an
A Tuesday, February 10 congressional briefing entitled, Reducing Overreliance on Psychotropics and Increasing Use of Psychosocial Treatments for Children and Youth in Foster Care focused attention on the need for stronger treatment options for children in foster care. The briefing was cosponsored by First Focus, Voice for Adoption and the State Policy Advocacy Reform Center.
Last week CLASP and the Center for American Progress (CAP) released a new report on the federal home visiting program (MIECHV) called, An Investment in our Future: How Federal Home Visiting Funding Provides Critical Support for Parents and Children, The report build on some of the research and information provided last week by HHS as
The Administration’s budget includes several proposed appropriations increases or changes in law to expand child welfare services, particularly for children and families involved with foster care. It is in fact a change for a budget area that rarely experiences any requested increases beyond what happens under the entitlement programs. Whether any action takes place will
On Friday, HHS released the first preliminary information and research on the home visiting program the Maternal Infant Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV). The research referred to as, Mother and Infant Home Visiting Program Evaluation or MIHOPE focuses on the initial planning, outreach and target families. The research partners for this and future reports are