Stories by Charlie Frago

  • Oil spill threatens Lake Conway

    A crude-oil pipeline ruptured near Lake Conway on Friday, prompting emergency workers to evacuate a residential neighborhood and rush to prevent the oil from e…

  • E-mails: Beebe sought tax spin

    Gov. Mike Beebe earlier this month questioned whether the state’s Medicaid program needed a requested $90 million, according to an e-mail from a state finance …

  • Policies likely for all in state, planners say

    Some lawmakers and advocates remain concerned that rural, poor Arkansans will be left without coverage when the state’s health-insurance exchange begins operat…

  • Medicaid plan seen averting hit from fines

    Arkansas businesses could be saddled with up to $38 million in fines if state lawmakers don’t expand Medicaid, according to a national tax service’s report.

  • State-exchange funding vulnerable

    Federal spending cuts triggered by sequestration threaten Arkansas’ budding health-insurance exchange after all, according to an e-mail to state exchange plann…

  • Medicaid deal with U.S. solid, Beebe says

    Arkansas’ deal to expand Medicaid is legal, Gov. Mike Beebe said Thursday, and emails among state officials indicate that top federal officials agree.

  • Medicaid strategy jells in e-mail flurry

    E-mails between Arkansas policymakers and leading Republicans show an effort to develop pro-expansion “talking points” to help sell an unprecedented Medicaid e…

  • Exchange fees seen as lode for Medicaid

    More dollars generated by fees levied on a huge new pool of customers on the state’s health-insurance exchange could help pay for Arkansas’ share of Medicaid e…

  • Medicaid plan likely a keeper, Rapert says

    A leading Republican who has been unhappy with the state partnering with the federal government on its health insurance exchange said Monday that he is likely …

  • Medicaid put in new light by U.S. deal

    A day after Arkansas made national headlines for wrangling a unique option for Medicaid expansion from the federal government, lawmakers, advocates and provide…

  • Medicaid plan uses exchange

    Expanding Medicaid to all 250,000 eligible Arkansans can be done by funneling them through the state’s insurance exchange under a plan unveiled Tuesday by Gov.…

  • AARP: State needs more Medicaid

    A powerful national lobbying group for older Americans cited Arkansas on Monday as one of two states where it is “ramping up” a national campaign to expand Med…

  • Beebe: Sebelius meeting fruitful

    Gov. Mike Beebe emerged from a “productive” meeting with U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on Friday, saying he felt good about Arkans…

  • Medicaid effort by state garners federal millions

    Arkansas’ effort to overhaul the way it pays Medicaid providers received a boost Thursday as the federal government rewarded the state’s first-in-the-nation ef…

  • Hearings set on exchange for insurance

    A state senator who has favored ceding control of the state’s insurance exchange to the federal government said Tuesday that his committee will hold hearings n…

  • Outsider look at Medicaid in GOP plans

    Republicans’ continued skepticism about the benefits of Medicaid expansion and the existing $5 billion program has prompted one effort, possibly two, to engage…

  • State leaders: Disability policy unwieldy

    Top officials from the Arkansas Department of Human Services and their state counterparts who handle federal disability claims agree that national policy needs…

  • Medicaid plan leaves GOP legislators leery

    Republican lawmakers voiced concern Wednesday that the state’s doctors will be squeezed financially by the far-reaching Medicaid cost-containment strategy bein…

  • Some big firms back expansion of state Medicaid

    Some large businesses in Arkansas that pay low wages are publicly supporting Medicaid expansion, citing worries that federal penalties or the high cost of prov…

  • Medicaid report fans GOP flame

    Legislative auditors released a GOP-requested report on the state’s Medicaid program Friday that turned up a provider convicted of a sex crime who mainly serve…

  • Panel: Leave smokers to insurers

    Insurance companies, not the state, would decide how to deal with smokers in the new insurance marketplace mandated by the federal health-care law under a reco…

  • Medicaid decision next year?

    Republican lawmakers are talking about delaying a decision on Medicaid expansion until next year as they absorb an avalanche of new information regarding optio…

  • Insurance-setup abortion ban favored

    Legislation prohibiting coverage for abortions on the state’s health insurance exchange advanced Wednesday in a Senate panel.

  • Medicaid’s new thrift baffles lawmakers

    The rapidly shrinking state Medicaid deficit can’t be explained by anything other than an “announcement effect” of the state’s far-reaching payment overhaul, w…

  • Exchange funding is feared in danger

    Insurance Department officials say an unusually structured budget bill makes it easier for insurance-exchange opponents to kill the state’s partnership model.

  • Benefits-link cited as mire for Medicaid

    Physically and mentally disabled Arkansans receiving federal disability benefits drove the state’s ballooning Medicaid costs over the past five years.

  • Report delay puts 2 at odds

    Legislative auditors on Friday delayed until next week the release of a special report on Medicaid that Republican lawmakers had wanted released sooner, drawin…

  • LR bishop backs wider Medicaid

    The bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Little Rock endorsed Medicaid expansion Thursday, saying Catholic doctrine’s “pro-life ” tradition compels him to “suppor…

  • Medicaid audit report release seen as political

    A legislative panel’s decision to speed the release of a special audit report on the state’s Medicaid program drew criticism Wednesday from Democrats, who sugg…

  • Plot twist arises in Medicaid discussion

    An unintended wrinkle in the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act gives about 87,000 foreigners residing legally in Arkansas the right to federal…

  • Broadened services make exchange cut

    After a month of “grueling” debate, insurance-exchange planners arrived Thursday at a tentative solution for the shape, the size and the scope of habilitative …

  • Medicaid or aid for insurance?

    Some Republican legislators aim to reframe the Medicaid-expansion debate by encouraging poor Arkansans to buy health coverage on the state’s insurance exchange…

  • Legislators told to pick best parts of health plan

    Although Medicaid expansion and a payment overhaul will be “disruptive” to the way medical care works in Arkansas, the changes will benefit the state’s poor, i…

  • Exchange planners delay again

    Three times wasn’t the charm for state health insurance exchange planners and developmental disability advocates Friday.

  • Some in GOP urge wait for better Medicaid deal

    An answer from the federal government on whether Arkansas can “partially” expand Medicaid is unlikely before the end of February, and details of how it would w…

  • Coverage called curb for violence

    Expanding Medicaid coverage to 250,000 poor Arkansans could improve services for unstable mentally ill people in Arkansas — a group responsible for some of the…

  • Senator favors state giving up insurance role

    The new chairman of the Senate Insurance and Commerce Committee said Tuesday that he favors ending the state’s partnership with the federal government for its …

  • Wal-Mart kicking in to reduce care costs

    Wal-Mart Stores Inc. announced Thursday that it will flex its corporate muscle with a $670,000 grant to help the state and private insurers harness rising heal…

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