State of the Union?

There's a huge event in the U.S. Capitol Wednesday. Oh, yes, President Obama is giving the State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress in the evening. But I was talking about the Partnership for Medicaid's "State of Medicaid" Congressional briefing at 9 a.m. in the new Capitol Visitor's Center. NACo is a member of the Partnership for Medicaid, a national coalition of of major stakeholder organizations in the Medicaid program. Each year, the coalition updates Hill staff about the importance of maintaining and strengthening the Medicaid safety net. The Partnership representatives will discuss its 14 principles and stress these in particular: Congress should 1) preserve the federal guarantee of Medicaid coverage, services and consumer protections; 2) expand Medicaid eligibility; 3) improve provider and health plan reimbursement rates and 4) address fraud and abuse.