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A new state report found that many Virginians on Medicaid often go to emergency rooms for dental issues that could have been prevented or treated at a dentist’s office. A recently released report by the Department of Medical Assistance Services found that about 16,000 Medicaid recipients visited emergency rooms about 19,000 times in 2018. More than half of those 16,000 were treated for “non-traumatic dental conditions” like tooth aches and loose teeth. (12/11)

A recent award of $8 billion in state Medicaid contracts by the administration of Gov. Matt Bevin came under fire on two fronts by lawmakers on Monday. They were angered over the seeming haste to award the contracts, as well as the administration's attempt to bypass a legislative committee that's supposed to review them. On Monday, the General Assembly's Government Contract Review Committee, which has only advisory power, voted unanimously to reject the contracts after finding the Bevin administration failed to give them the contracts in advance. (Yetter, 12/9)

It has been nearly a year since Maine expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, with enrollment on track to fall below projections once the mark is reached in early 2020. More than 42,000 people eligible for MaineCare under the expansion provisions have signed up since Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, opened the voter-approved program in January. That’s just 60 percent of the population that the state expected to be covered by the end of this year. (Andrews, 12/11)

Wisconsin will no longer categorically deny Medicaid coverage for medically necessary gender-confirming surgery, a practice a federal judge found violated patients' civil rights and federal health care law. Lawyers for transgender residents who sued last year announced a settlement Tuesday after the deadline had passed for the state to appeal last month's final judgment in the class action case. (Vielmetti, 12/10)