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A pair of Democrats from the House and Senate want a government watchdog to make sure Tennessee does not abuse funding if the Trump administration approves the state’s request to block-grant Medicaid. In a letter sent Tuesday, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.) urged the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General to “exercise vigorous oversight” if Tennessee’s waiver request is granted. (Weixel, 1/14)

Kansas Hospital Association CEO Tom Bell will retire in September after helping push through a hard-fought bipartisan deal to expand Medicaid to an estimated 150,000 adults earning up to 138% of the federal poverty level. The expansion, which would start next January, is expected to ease the rural hospital crisis in his state, where five hospitals have closed since 2010 and another 29 are on the financial brink. Bell, who started with association as legal counsel in 1986 and has served as CEO since 2005, spoke with Modern Healthcare senior reporter Harris Meyer about how the Kansas agreement fits into the national battle over Medicaid expansion. (Meyer, 1/14)

The director of the Ohio Medicaid program said Gov. Mike DeWine’s administration inherited a “mess” from the Kasich administration. Ohio Department of Medicaid Director Maureen Corcoran, in a 2019 year-end summary memo to DeWine, described what she called a series of inherited issues the department confronted during its first year under the DeWine administration. (Schroeder, 1/14)