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Hospital Assessment Fee and Medicaid rates - The Hospital Assessment Fee (HAF) is a program codified in state law that is used partly to reimburse eligible hospitals for services provided to fee-for-service and managed care members. It is also used as the state's share of disproportionate share hospital (DSH) payments. Find more information from FSSA here. Hospitals are working on legislative action to address the HAF and low Medicaid reimbursement rates.

All Payer Claims Database (APCD) - The Indiana Department of Insurance (IDOI), a relatively small agency, has several big responsibilities when it comes to legislative priorities for containing growing health care costs. Following 2020 legislation, the department must build out and maintain an All Payer Claims Database or APCD, which will collect claims data from various health payer sources—including insurers, health maintenance organizations, PBMs (pharmacy benefit management) and others—in a consumer-facing dashboard. IDOI tasked Onpoint Health Data to design and maintain the APCD, which appears to be nearing a launch date.

Additional legislative obligations for IDOI - HEA 1004 (2023) tasked IDOI with regulating Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBM) and developing a monitoring system for prices at five nonprofit hospital systems, comparing those to a 285% Medicare rate.

The Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) has released school and corporation data reports. Data can be found here. Scroll down to Graduation & College /Career Readiness to see how your community school fared.

The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion has a literature review on graduation rate as a social determinant of health. More information can be found here. The literature review also looks at racial disparities in graduation rates, risk factors that contribute to the likelihood of graduating, and programs that encourage high school completion.

The Indiana School Health Network (ISHN) invites school health professionals and advocates to submit proposals for a session at the 2024 Indiana School Health Network Conference on June 4-5, 2024. The conference will be held at the Embassy Suites Plainfield Hotel and Conference Center. This year's theme is "Seeds of Hope: Growing a Strong Future for Hoosier Kids."

For more information or questions on submitting a proposal, please contact Sarah Thompson at sthompson@ckfindiana.org.

In a memo dated December 22, 2023, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) provided findings from a review of policies approved in the extension of the Healthy Indiana Plan (HIP) demonstration project. At this time, there are no changes to the HIP policies including POWER Account payments. The Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA) has indicated they will announce plans for reinstating POWER Account payments early this year.

January 15, 2024 - Marketplace open enrollment for 2024 coverage ends.

July 31, 2024 – Anyone losing Medicaid coverage between March 31, 2023 – July 31, 2024 is eligible for a 60 day special enrollment period (SEP) beginning the day they submit or update a Marketplace application. This Unwinding SEP will be automatically applied based on their answers to the application questions regarding Medicaid. Learn more here including how to answer the Medicaid coverage questions.

John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health published a brief on some advances in public health including the availability of over the counter hearing aids, oral contraceptives, and Narcan.

Katelyn Jetelina, an epidemiologist and blogger, published an end-of-the-year public health assessment on the blog Your Local Epidemiologist. Of note are the increase in life expectancy, the expansion of Medicaid coverage in three states, the deceleration of opioid deaths, and the improved reach of the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.