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House passes opioids legislation

Modern Healthcare: The U.S. House of Representatives Friday morning passed a massive package of bills aimed at curbing the opioid crisis.

The legislation included a measure to lift a Medicaid funding ban on inpatient addiction treatment in institutions for mental diseases.

Lawmakers are using the Medicaid medical loss ratio to pay for the legislation, which will affect Medicaid insurers. If states voluntarily set an 85% medical loss ratio for their Medicaid managed-care plans, their portion of the Medicaid insurers' remittances will line up with their traditional Medicaid match rather than the lower expansion match. The Congressional Budget Office projected the government will save $2.6 billion over a decade from that action.

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