State Highlights: Oklahoma’s Governor Takes Step To Expand Medicaid; Bill To Check Bottling Water Operations In Washington Is First To Fail

The Oklahoman: Oklahoma Health Officials Begin Medicaid Expansion Process
The Stitt administration is moving forward with plans to expand Medicaid to cover more low-income Oklahomans on July 1. The Oklahoma Health Care Authority on Friday submitted paperwork to expand Medicaid to adults ages 19-64 whose income does not exceed 133% of the federal poverty level, which is $16,970 annually for an individual and $34,846 for a family of four. (Forman, 3/7)

Modern Healthcare: Oklahoma Governor Seeks Medicaid Expansion, Plans Block Grant Transition
The administration of Oklahoma’s Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt has asked the CMS for approval to expand Medicaid to low-income adults under the Affordable Care Act as soon as July 1. Stitt told the Oklahoman newspaper Thursday that after submitting the state plan amendment, the state will follow up with the Trump administration to seek waivers to allow the state to impose premiums and work requirements on expansion enrollees under his proposed SoonerCare 2.0 plan. (Meyer, 3/6)

Stateline: Washington State Bottled Water Bill Fails, But Congress Scrutinizes Industry
A bill in Washington state to ban bottled water companies from tapping groundwater sources has died in a state House committee, stalling efforts to make the state the first in the nation to place such limits on the industry. But national scrutiny may be intensifying, as a congressional subcommittee has launched an investigation into the bottled water industry. (Brown, 3/6)

Dallas Morning News: Blue Cross Blue Shield Of Texas To Pay $10 Million Fine, Issue Refunds After State Finds Billing Mistakes
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas is agreeing to pay a $10 million fine and issue refunds to consumers after a state review found billing mistakes in the insurer’s handling of out-of-network emergency claims. The Texas Department of Insurance announced the fine and restitution agreement Friday. Richardson-based Blue Cross will begin sending out notices to affected consumers by May 1. (O’Donnell, 3/6)

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: New Senior Care Violations Surface As Georgia Debates Reform
The Georgia House sent a strong message that now is the time to protect the state’s aging population when it overwhelmingly passed a senior care safety bill that would increase fines and require more staffing and training at assisted living and large personal care homes. With the Senate scheduled to take up the bill in the coming weeks, a question still hangs over the reform effort: How far is Georgia willing to go to demand higher standards and accountability from the care industry that serves thousands of seniors? (Teegardin and Schrade, 3/7)

Boston Globe: Scores Of Sex Offenders Worked As Personal Care Aides — Yet Mass. Did Not Require Background Checks 
In 2018, more than 120 personal care attendants — paid by the state to help people with disabilities eat, dress, or use the bathroom — were registered sex offenders, a state watchdog found. Thousands more had open criminal cases. Some had even faced murder charges. Yet, state officials, who pay $1 billion to these workers each year, don’t require background checks for them. In fact, the state’s Medicaid program, known as MassHealth, has so little information about these 50,000 workers, it doesn’t even know their names, according to a new report. (Stout and McCluskey, 3/8)

The Associated Press: Kansas GOP Leader’s Medicaid Expansion Move Roils Statehouse
Jim Denning once symbolized what for Medicaid expansion supporters was wrong with the Republican-controlled Kansas Legislature. Now, the Kansas Senate majority leader is an expansion champion who’s under fire from some GOP lawmakers he’s supposed to be leading for working with the state’s Democratic governor. Denning recently faced criticism from Republicans for appearing at events with Gov. Laura Kelly to promote an expansion plan that she and Denning drafted. (Hanna, 3/7)

Los Angeles Times: Homeless Housing Tenants Say AIDS Healthcare Is ‘Slumlord’
When the AIDS Healthcare Foundation began acquiring aging, single-occupancy hotels on skid row three years ago, its president, Michael Weinstein, lambasted L.A.’s handling of the homelessness crisis and boasted that he could house people at a fraction of the cost. Some questioned why the nonprofit powerhouse, which operates 64 outpatient healthcare centers and 48 pharmacies in 15 states, was jumping into housing at the same time it was tangling with the city over “mega-developments” near its Hollywood headquarters. Others welcomed a fresh approach to tackling the intractable homelessness and affordable housing crisis. (Holland, 3/8)