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Iowa administrators are still negotiating how much they’ll pay national insurance companies to run the state’s $5 billion Medicaid program in fiscal year 2020, which starts Monday. Hundreds of millions of state and federal dollars are on the table in the extended contract negotiations between state officials and the insurance companies. The companies, also known as managed care organizations, cover nearly 600,000 poor or disabled Iowans on Medicaid. (Leys, 6/28)

State economists meet Friday to begin discussions on a proposed constitutional amendment that, if approved next year by voters, would expand Florida’s Medicaid program. The proposal, backed by a group that wants to force the state to expand Medicaid as authorized under the federal health care act known as "Obamacare," will become the first to be evaluated under a contentious new law designed to make it more difficult for citizen initiatives to get onto the ballot in Florida. (Sexton, 6/28)

Starting Monday, thanks to the work of an unusual bipartisan coalition, the state is expanding its Medicaid support services for brain injuries to include those with the acquired type as well. The change comes after years of lobbying by advocates like Heather Matty, who works at the Brain Injury Association of Kansas and Greater Kansas City. (Marso, 7/1)

Illinois owes the federal government $4.1 million for failing to seek rebates from drug companies for medications prescribed through the state’s Medicaid program, according to a federal audit released Friday. Under federal law, the federal government will reimburse states for certain drugs prescribed to people on Medicaid, a state- and federally funded health insurance program for the poor and disabled. But in order to get the reimbursements, states must seek rebates from pharmaceutical companies. (Schencker, 6/28)

Medicaid expansion advocates notched several red-state victories during the midterm elections last year. Voters in Idaho, Nebraska and Utah approved ballot measures to make more low-income people eligible for low-cost government health insurance. But that momentum hasn't continued into this year's legislative sessions. In almost every state where Medicaid expansion had a chance of passing, the effort faltered. (Quinn, 7/1)

A Medicaid program that delivers mental health and addiction services in eight states hit hard by the opioid crisis got a two-week reprieve Friday after a procedural dispute in Congress threatened its federal funding. The House cleared a short-term spending patch through July 14, when Congress will again need to replenish the program's coffers to maintain services for some 300,000 people — including 9,000 receiving medication-assisted treatment for opioid addiction. (Ehley, 6/28)