Government Healthcare Policy, Business and Technology

Health homes for chronically ill kids spark lame-duck battle

Modern Healthcare: A band of lawmakers and staff want to pass by year-end a controversial bill that would set up an optional health home program for kids with complex illnesses—and the federal government would pick up most of the Medicaid tab for states that want it.

But the Advancing Care for Exceptional Kids or ACE Kids Act—similar to the health home model implemented in Obamacare—has hit political snags in Congress over money, while an unlikely coalition of critics aren't sure they want it to become law. With children's hospitals urging lawmakers to act and the Medicaid managed-care industry pushing just as hard against it, the bill's fate in the crowded lame duck calendar is still unclear.

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