More than 600 people descended on the New Hampshire Statehouse to protest Medicaid cuts. A public hearing on the budget cuts drew public comments that stretched for more than 6 hours from people objecting to a list of cuts to Medicaid including in-home support services, mental health grants and bloc grants to the state's 13 largest hospitals.
The $145 million cut for Medicaid funding to the state hospitals is expected to hurt Lebanon's Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center most as it stands to lose $70 million according to Gina Balkus, DHMC's director of governmental relations.
An amendment in the Indiana state budget could cause more than 1,500 children to lose Medicaid coverage. Under current state eligibility rules under a Medicaid waiver allows for parents to receive home-assisted help for children with disabilities including a full-time care worker as necessary. The current waiver allows parents to qualify for in-home medical assistance without needing to factor in the parents' income. The amendment in the current state budget notes that income reviews may take place for those receiving the service. State legislators have acknowledged the potential problem and have pledged to work on correctly the language in the amendment.
Florida's Medicaid overhaul could soon make partners out of rivals. As the state prepares to transition the Medicaid program to managed care, hospitals in the Tampa Bay area that usually compete for patients have recently begun discussions to create a coordinated care network for low-income children, poor adults and pregnant women. The idea behind the plan, according to a report in the St. Petersburg Times, is to allow the not-for-profit hospitals to compete with the for-profit managed care organizations expected to get the lion's share of Florida's $20 billion in Medicaid spending.