Washington Health Care Authority Archives - Northwest Public Broadcasting

Washington Sent Brain Injury Patients To Oklahoma — Then All But Forgot About Them

By Austin Jenkins August 7, 2018

Regina Ibrahim and her daughter Nadja take a selfie together during a recent visit at Western State Hospital CREDIT: REGINA IBRAHIM

Everyone survived, but Laurie would never be the same again. She had suffered a severe brain injury that left her in a coma-like state for nearly a month. When Laurie emerged from the coma, her personality had changed — a common effect of traumatic brain injuries. Read More

20,000 People Booted From Washington Medicaid Rolls For Ineligibility

By Austin Jenkins November 22, 2017

VISITOR7/WIKIMEDIA-TINYURL.COM/J6O4LKN Listen Nearly 20,000 people have been removed from Washington’s Medicaid rolls for ineligibility. The purge happened after the state stepped up efforts to verify residency and income levels. Over the summer, Washington’s Health Care Authority experimented with using the research firm LexisNexis as an additional way to check the Read More

With Federal Children’s Health Coverage Uncertain, Washington And Oregon Consider Options

By Austin Jenkins November 21, 2017

Listen Washington and Oregon are making contingency plans in case Congress doesn’t reauthorize the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which is for low-income families that earn too much to qualify for Medicaid. Funding for CHIP expired in September. Since then the program has been operating on a month-to-month basis with leftover federal funds. For years the… Read More