Medicaid

Governor Asa Hutchinson announced during a weekly briefing that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has approved a five-year Section 1115 Demonstration Project called, “Arkansas Health and Opportunity for Me, ” or ARHOME. The approval of ARHOME will allow…

The Arkansas legislature has voted to retain the state’s Medicaid expansion. The Arkansas House of Representatives voted in favor of keeping the program on Tuesday, April 20. The 78-15 vote approved the Medicaidbudget and expansion program. After the Arkansas Senate…

The 11th week of the session was an abbreviated one as the General Assembly took a recess for Spring Break. Before members left the Capitol, the House Public Health, Welfare, and Labor Committee advanced a new version of the Medicaid…

Preferred Family Healthcare (PFH) has agreed to settle in federal and state cases for $6.5 million. The company had been investigated by the Arkansas Attorney General’s Office for false claims submitted to the Arkansas Medicaid Program. The Medicaid Fraud Control…

Direct care workers in long-term care facilities and nursing homes will be getting bonus payments to supplement their weekly income during the COVID-19 pandemic. In his Wednesday press conference, Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid…

A few days ago, I was in my office sorting through a box of old documents when I came across a report issued by the Governor’s Task Force on Rural Hospitals dated Oct. 1, 1988. As I skimmed the report’s…

Almost three years ago a task force of Arkansas legislators submitted its final report on how to control the growing costs of the state Medicaid program. Since then the state Human Services Department (DHS) has adopted a series of reforms…

Today I want to talk about what we are doing in Arkansas to expand access to mental health services and for those in need of drug-addiction counseling. In the two years since we transformed Medicaid coverage, the number of counselors…

The Arkansas Department of Human Services will be launching a new helpline aimed at helping individuals with mental health issues and drug addiction.  Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced the new helpline today (Aug. 20), which he says will be staffed by…

On Thursday, we received news that a district judge in Washington, D.C., had struck down the work requirement in Arkansas Works Medicaid Program. Arkansas’s work requirement has put us on the leading edge nationally. We were the first state to…