Governor Greg Gianforte answers questions from students at Sunnyside School in Havre (credit: Josh Margolis) Mike Randal recently took over as Montana’s Medicaid Director whose past work includes privatizing the management of Medicaid in Kansas and Iowa. Recently, Governor Greg Gianforte told New Media Broadcasters the Department of Public ...
State Hospital Loses Federal Funding
In a letter Friday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said the Montana State Hospital will lose its federal reimbursement funding Tuesday after repeated failures to meet standard health and safety conditions. The letter to the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services noted payments may continue for 30 calendar days f...
Federal Court Blocks State Law Banning Vaccine Mandates
Health care facilities and individual practitioners and clinics can mandate vaccines. Friday, U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy blocked the state from enforcing Montana’s House Bill 702 passed into law in 2021. The Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services requires them to ensure their staffs are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or the...
Montana Ordered To Phase Out Medicaid Premiums
In late 2021, Montana was informed by the Biden administration that its plans to charge premiums to low-income adults enrolled in Medicaid would not go forward and the state had to phase out existing ones by the end of this year. Kaiser Health News reports the state has already eliminated its continuous eligibility for adults. The Biden admini...
DPHHS Issues Guidance for Health Care Facilities & Providers For Federal Mandate
The Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services has issued guidance for state health care facilities and providers with respect to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services COVID-19 vaccine mandate. It requires Medicare and Medicaid-certified facilities to establish a policy ensuring that all covered staff have been vaccin...
Montana Hospital Association Issues Statement On Federal Vaccine Injunction
The Montana Hospital Association has affirmed the state’s ban on workplace vaccine mandates is back to being the law of the land for health providers after federal immunization requirements for health workers were paused nationwide by a federal judge Tuesday. In October the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid had issued requirements that r...
Congressman Rosendale Introduces Bill Calling For Medicare and Medicaid Transparency
Through a federal program called 340B, hospitals and medical facilities that dispense prescription drugs can get steep price discounts from manufacturers for drugs sold to patients covered by federal health-insurance programs such as Medicare and Medicaid. A bill introduced earlier this month by Representative Matt Rosendale would require hosp...
Nursing Homes & Assisted Living Facilities Exempt From New State Vaccine Law
It’s cold and flu season and on top of the ongoing pandemic people are focusing on who is required to get their COVID-19 vaccine and who isn’t. Montana’s House Bill 702 became law earlier this year and it prevents employers from discriminating based on vaccine status or having an immunity passport. That means all vaccines inc...
Extended Medicaid Eligibility May End Soon
The Department of Public Health and Human Services is seeking federal permission to eliminate the continuous eligibility provision for Medicaid expansion of which about 100,000 Montanans are covered. Currently people remain eligible for coverage for a full year even if their income increases and they no longer meet financial requirements. The ...
Suicide Hotline & Specialist Service In Montana To Go Nationwide
By July 2022, a national 988 hotline modeled on 911 is slated to launch for people to reach trained suicide prevention specialists and mental health counselors. Missoula began sending this special crew on emergency mental health calls in November as a pilot project and next month the program will become permanent. It’s one of six mobile crisis...