The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has not been on the minds of Twitter all year, but there has been an awakening. 

Concerns about budget cuts and the impact of 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on the Agency has recently pushed CMS into the forefront of conversation on the leading social media site.

According to OhMyGov Analytics, over 6,400 mentions of the agency were registered this week on Twitter--1,412 on May 22 alone.

Chatter on the social network site ranged from the need to protect the independence of people with disabilities, to a federal judge's ruling that Arizona's Medicare program must pay for incontinence briefs for the disabled.

However, the emotional testimony of Jessica Lehman, an Oakland, Calif. resident and Medicaid activist, at the Caring Across Generations Town Hall in Washington, D.C. Monday—created a lot of chatter.  The Town Hall saw emotional testimony from testicular cancer survivors and family of loved ones lost to diseases like ALS as they spoke about the need to protect Medicare and Medicaid funding--even as support for social programs come under increasing scrutiny from state legislatures as well as Congress.  Some twitter mentions were:

"Powerful testimony from @JessicaLehman47 abt need to protect Medicaid to protect independence of people with disabilities" @PICOCOAhealth tweeted.

"Joshua, a high school student and cancer survivor, is struggling to get by after his father passed away" the @CaringAcrossGen official account tweeted.

"At the CareXGens Town Hall, listening to Joshua talk about his dad's death from ALS & his own testicular cancer" Jessica Rothaar of PICOCOA Health, a nonprofit, faith based social action network wrote.

But it wasn't just emotions that were being shared on Twitter.  Legal and political concerns also dominated, demonstrated by the news that a Arizona judge ruled on behalf of the Arizona Center for Disability Law, which brought a lawsuit against the state to amend the law so that incontinence briefs could be considered as 'medically necessary' health supplies--rather than accoutrements that the state wouldn't have to fund.

"Judge rules on Ariz. policy on incontinence briefs," The Phoenix Daily News tweeted. "Arizona's Medicaid program must provide broader coverage for incontinence briefs for disabled people under a new federal court ruling."

Yet the press weren't the only ones chiming in the conversation.  Colorado state representative Dave Young (D-Greeley) threw his two cents in too, announcing his impending meeting with Governor John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) about a 'global payments' bill for Medicaid, AKA House bill 12-1281.

"Meeting with Gov Hickenlooper tomorrow @ Monfort Park @11:30 AM to discuss hb1281," Young tweeted May 21. "hope to see you there!"

If signed into law, H.B. 1281 would implement a pilot program establishing new methodologies for Medicaid payments in the state--as well as appropriating over $213,000 for the purpose of studying, and eventually implementing the program by September 15, 2015.

Yet other states are going in the opposite direction. A proposal by the libertarian Illinois Policy Institute would actually slash $2.6 billion in funding for the state's Medicaid fund--a proposal supported by the state's Democratic governor Pat Quinn as the state struggles to avoid the fate of California, whose deficit has ballooned to nearly $16 billion as its governor, Jerry Brown (D-CA), campaigns on a platform of higher taxes and deep spending cuts--including slashes of some social service programs.

According to TheTelegraph.com, the 59 proposed reforms by the institute would include eliminating funding for adult chiropractic services, enforcing Medicaid eligibility rules, a reliance on generic versus brand name drugs and a shift from short to long term community care.

The changes are already having an impact on the ground.  According to a survey by Jackson Healthcare in Atlanta, nearly 36 percent of physicians are turning away new Medicare recipients in part because o declining Medicare reimbursements.  According to the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, if the President's health care law is upheld by the Supreme Court, enrollment in Medicaid and Medicare could swell to 22 million in 2019.

A proposal by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney would repeal the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act, and eliminate Medicare and Medicaid as entitlement programs, turning them into voucher programs and block grant schemes, respectively.  According to The New Republic, nearly 58 million Americans could end up uninsured if Romney's proposals were to come to pass.