Medicaid

COMMENTARY
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If you’ve lost Medicaid since the pandemic, expansion coverage may be available

BY: - October 28, 2023

You may not recognize my name, but you might recognize my face. Last year at this time, my personal story was featured as part of the campaign to expand health insurance access in South Dakota. I shared how I didn’t have health insurance when I was diagnosed with leukemia at age 26. I encouraged you […]

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Advocates express patience as Medicaid expansion enrollments trail projections

BY: - October 19, 2023

Expanded Medicaid eligibility is attracting fewer enrollments so far than the state anticipated, but some industry insiders say that’s to be expected. Projections indicated about 52,000 people would be eligible for coverage under the expansion. The number of expansion enrollees reached somewhere between 11,000 and 12,000 as of Tuesday’s Board of Social Services meeting in […]

South Dakota Association of Healthcare Organizations Chief Operating Officer Tammy Hatting presents to legislators on Sept. 25, 2023, in Pierre. (Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight)

Proposed nursing home staffing standards are ‘disaster waiting to happen,’ industry reps say

BY: - September 25, 2023

PIERRE — Proposed federal staffing standards for nursing homes that accept Medicaid would be catastrophic for South Dakota facilities, industry representatives warn. The South Dakota Association of Healthcare Organizations and South Dakota Health Care Association both presented information to legislators at Thursday’s committee meeting at the Capitol on the sustainability of long-term care in the […]

The Bennett County Nursing Home is located in Martin. (Photo Courtesy of Connie Smith/Lakota Times)

Third SD nursing home to close in 2023 as Legislature studies long term care sustainability

BY: - August 24, 2023

A third South Dakota nursing home will close this year — citing short staff, rising costs and years of insufficient Medicaid reimbursement. More than 15 South Dakota nursing homes have closed since 2017. The Bennett County Nursing Home in Martin operated at a loss of over $1.3 million in the first six months of 2023, […]

Linda Noneo's work as a community health representative for her tribe in Nevada is focused on providing transportation to health care appointments for Fallon Paiute-Shoshone members. After driving two patients to their dialysis treatments at a clinic nearby in late June, Noneo logs the time and mileage on a sheet of paper. (Jazmin Orozco Rodriguez/KFF Health News)

South Dakota one of three states where tribal health workers are eligible to be paid like peers

BY: - August 15, 2023

FALLON, Nev. — Linda Noneo turned up the heat in her van to ward off the early morning chill that persists in northern Nevada’s high desert even in late June. As the first rays of daylight broke over a Christian cross on the top a hill near the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone colony, she drove toward her […]

COMMENTARY
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Thousands of South Dakotans will see immediate benefits from Medicaid expansion

BY: - August 4, 2023

Many South Dakotans rejoiced with their family, friends and neighbors on July 1, the effective date of voter-approved Amendment D. With Medicaid expansion, we are keeping millions of our federal taxpayer dollars in the state, strengthening our economy and helping to keep rural hospitals open. South Dakota joins 39 other states across the nation in […]

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54,000 South Dakotans disenrolled in Medicaid unwind; 52,000 expected to be eligible with expansion

BY: - July 26, 2023

Roughly 54,000 South Dakotans have lost Medicaid coverage since the end of pandemic protections in March. At the same time, 52,000 South Dakotans are estimated to be eligible for enrollment in a voter-approved Medicaid expansion that took effect on July 1, state officials told legislators at an appropriations meeting Wednesday in Pierre. Voters approved the […]

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Biden administration implores states, including SD, to slow Medicaid cuts

BY: - June 13, 2023

Too many Americans are losing Medicaid coverage because of red tape, and states should do more to make sure eligible people keep their health insurance, the Biden administration said Monday. More than a million Americans have lost coverage through the program for low-income and disabled Americans in the past several weeks, following the end of […]

The South Dakota Department of Social Services in Pierre. (John Hult/South Dakota Searchlight)

More states, including SD, seek postpartum Medicaid coverage beyond two months

BY: - June 4, 2023

At least eight states this year — including South Dakota — have decided to seek federal approval to extend postpartum Medicaid coverage, leaving just a handful that have opted not to guarantee at least a year of health care for women during that critical period after pregnancy. The new states on the list include Montana, […]

Protestors carry signs as they demonstrate against proposed cuts to Medicaid and Medicare outside San Francisco City Hall in 2011. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Half a million people in less than a dozen states have lost Medicaid coverage since April

BY: - June 1, 2023

More than 500,000 people across 11 states have lost their Medicaid coverage since the unwinding of a policy that allowed people to stay in the program throughout the pandemic. The data, reported by the states and tracked by health policy researcher KFF, shows that of the five states providing data on people who lost Medicaid […]

The South Dakota Department of Social Services in Pierre. (John Hult/South Dakota Searchlight)

Thousands face Medicaid whiplash in South Dakota

BY: - May 18, 2023

Until recently, Jonathon Murray relied on Medicaid to pay for treatments for multiple health conditions, including chronic insomnia. Murray, a 20-year-old restaurant worker from the college town of Brookings, said that without his medication, he would stay awake for several nights in a row. “I’d probably not be able to work that much because I’d […]

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22,000 South Dakotans could lose Medicaid now, about half could get it back later, state says

BY: - April 18, 2023

Roughly 22,000 South Dakota Medicaid recipients are “likely to be ineligible” in the coming months as pandemic protections expire, but perhaps half of them could qualify again in July when a voter-approved expansion takes effect, Deputy Director of Medical Services Sarah Aker told the state Board of Social Services at its Tuesday meeting. The decline […]