Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • ESG: THE NEW IMPERATIVE
Subscribe
  • My Account
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Current News
    • COVID-19
    • Providers
    • Insurance
    • Government
    • Finance
    • Technology
    • Safety & Quality
    • Transformation
    • People
    • Regional News
    • Digital Edition (Web Version)
    • Patients
    • Operations
    • Care Delivery
    • Payment
    • Midwest
    • Northeast
    • South
    • West
  • Digital Health
  • Insights
    • ACA 10 Years After
    • Best Practices
    • Special Reports
    • Innovations
  • Data/Lists
    • Rankings/Lists
    • Interactive Databases
    • Data Points
  • Opinion
    • Bold Moves
    • Breaking Bias
    • Commentaries
    • Letters
    • Vital Signs Blog
    • From the Editor
  • Awards
    • Nominate/Eligibility
    • 100 Most Influential People
    • 50 Most Influential Clinical Executives
    • Best Places to Work in Healthcare
    • Excellence in Governance
    • Health Care Hall of Fame
    • Healthcare Marketing Impact Awards
    • Top 25 Emerging Leaders
    • Top 25 Innovators
    • Diversity in Healthcare
    • Women in Healthcare
    • - Luminaries
    • - Top 25 Diversity Leaders
    • - Leaders to Watch
    • - Luminaries
    • - Top 25 Women Leaders
    • - Women to Watch
  • Events
    • Conferences
    • Galas
    • Virtual Briefings
    • Webinars
    • Custom Media Event: ESG Summit
    • Transformation Summit
    • Women Leaders in Healthcare Conference
    • Social Determinants of Health Symposium
    • Leadership Symposium
    • Health Care Hall of Fame Gala
    • Top 25 Women Leaders Gala
    • Best Places to Work Awards Gala
    • Top 25 Diversity Leaders Gala
    • - Hospital of the Future
    • - Value Based Care
    • - Supply Chain Revenue Cycle
    • - Hospital at Home
    • - Workplace of the Future
    • - Strategic Marketing
    • - Virtual Health
  • Listen
    • Podcast - Beyond the Byline
    • Sponsored Podcast - Healthcare Insider
    • Video Series - The Check Up
    • Sponsored Video Series - One on One
  • MORE +
    • Advertise
    • Media Kit
    • Newsletters
    • Jobs
    • People on the Move
    • Reprints & Licensing
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. Legal
July 14, 2020 07:56 PM

Arkansas asks Supreme Court to reinstate Medicaid work requirements

Modern Healthcare
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Reprints Print

    Arkansas officials want the U.S. Supreme Court to revive the state's Medicaid work requirements, maintaining that the program was meant to test if it would improve health outcomes.

    Although the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that the work requirements weren't consistent with Medicaid's primary objective, Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge said no community engagement program would be able to meet that test.

    "After all, all such requirements trade some risk of coverage loss to achieve healthier outcomes and independence," she wrote in petition for certiorari filed with the high court on Monday. "And under the court of appeals' logic, that will always be an impermissible tradeoff since Medicaid's sole objective is maximizing coverage."

    Medicaid waivers for Arkansas and other states primarily required beneficiaries to work or volunteer in "community engagement" activities for 80 hours per month or risk losing their coverage.

    Rutledge highlighted several other Medicaid pilot programs that used incentives to promote better beneficiary health, including smoking cessation and weight loss incentive experiments. She also pointed to previous Supreme Court decisions that acknowledged helping people avoid Medicaid assistance is an objective of the program.

    "If Congress thought so highly of healthy-behavior-incentive experiments that it mandated the secretary try some, surely the secretary at least has the discretion to try others," she wrote.

    Ultimately, the court should have weighed the benefits of better health outcomes against the potential of smaller Medicaid rolls, according to Rutledge.

    The D.C. Circuit opinion in February said the lower court was right to toss Kentucky and Arkansas' work requirements. "We agree with the district court that the alternative objectives of better health outcomes and beneficiary independence are not consistent with Medicaid," the opinion said.

    But Rutledge argued in her petition that the D.C. Circuit opinion rested on an esoteric section of the Social Security Act that focused on congressional appropriations rather than guidance for the HHS secretary on how to weigh Medicaid experiments.

    At the time the work requirement went into effect in 2018, approximately 250,000 people were enrolled in Arkansas Works, the state's Medicaid expansion program. By December, 18,000 people were disenrolled. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in June 2019 found the self-reported uninsured rate rose from 10.5% to 14.5% from 2016 to 2018 in Arkansas.

    A spokesman for Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said at the time that 15,000 Medicaid enrollees had found jobs during that period.

    So far, 18 states have proposed Medicaid work requirements in some form, but many have been put on hold as Arkansas' and Kentucky's initiatives wend their way through the courts.

    "Under the court of appeals' decision, that flexible waiver authority to test policies that may enhance the health and welfare of a state's citizens—and ultimately the nation's—would become a one-way ratchet, serving no purpose but to 'experiment' with means of increasing coverage," the petition said.

    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Send us a letter

    Have an opinion about this story? Click here to submit a Letter to the Editor, and we may publish it in print.

    Recommended for You
    SCOTUS TX abortion GettyImages-513333156_i copy_i.png
    HHS issues HIPAA guidance after abortion ruling
    healthcare workers vaccine
    High court rejects COVID-19 shot mandate case from New York
    Sponsored Content
    Daily Dose Newsletter: Sign up to receive a late afternoon weekday roundup of that day’s breaking news and developments in healthcare.
    Get Newsletters

    Sign up for enewsletters and alerts to receive breaking news and in-depth coverage of healthcare events and trends, as they happen, right to your inbox.

    Subscribe Today
    MH Magazine Cover

    MH magazine offers content that sheds light on healthcare leaders’ complex choices and touch points—from strategy, governance, leadership development and finance to operations, clinical care, and marketing.

    Subscribe
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Facebook
    • RSS

    Our Mission

    Modern Healthcare empowers industry leaders to succeed by providing unbiased reporting of the news, insights, analysis and data.

    Contact Us

    (877) 812-1581

    Email us

     

    Resources
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise with Us
    • Ad Choices Ad Choices
    • Sitemap
    Editorial Dept
    • Submission Guidelines
    • Code of Ethics
    • Awards
    • About Us
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Modern Healthcare
    Copyright © 1996-2022. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Current News
      • COVID-19
      • Providers
      • Insurance
      • Government
      • Finance
      • Technology
      • Safety & Quality
      • Transformation
        • Patients
        • Operations
        • Care Delivery
        • Payment
      • People
      • Regional News
        • Midwest
        • Northeast
        • South
        • West
      • Digital Edition (Web Version)
    • Digital Health
    • Insights
      • ACA 10 Years After
      • Best Practices
      • Special Reports
      • Innovations
    • Data/Lists
      • Rankings/Lists
      • Interactive Databases
      • Data Points
    • Opinion
      • Bold Moves
      • Breaking Bias
      • Commentaries
      • Letters
      • Vital Signs Blog
      • From the Editor
    • Awards
      • Nominate/Eligibility
      • 100 Most Influential People
      • 50 Most Influential Clinical Executives
      • Best Places to Work in Healthcare
      • Excellence in Governance
      • Health Care Hall of Fame
      • Healthcare Marketing Impact Awards
      • Top 25 Emerging Leaders
      • Top 25 Innovators
      • Diversity in Healthcare
        • - Luminaries
        • - Top 25 Diversity Leaders
        • - Leaders to Watch
      • Women in Healthcare
        • - Luminaries
        • - Top 25 Women Leaders
        • - Women to Watch
    • Events
      • Conferences
        • Transformation Summit
        • Women Leaders in Healthcare Conference
        • Social Determinants of Health Symposium
        • Leadership Symposium
      • Galas
        • Health Care Hall of Fame Gala
        • Top 25 Women Leaders Gala
        • Best Places to Work Awards Gala
        • Top 25 Diversity Leaders Gala
      • Virtual Briefings
        • - Hospital of the Future
        • - Value Based Care
        • - Supply Chain Revenue Cycle
        • - Hospital at Home
        • - Workplace of the Future
        • - Strategic Marketing
        • - Virtual Health
      • Webinars
      • Custom Media Event: ESG Summit
    • Listen
      • Podcast - Beyond the Byline
      • Sponsored Podcast - Healthcare Insider
      • Video Series - The Check Up
      • Sponsored Video Series - One on One
    • MORE +
      • Advertise
      • Media Kit
      • Newsletters
      • Jobs
      • People on the Move
      • Reprints & Licensing