Idaho plans to increase state funding for Medicaid, though the total budget for Medicaid will decrease, according to a report in the Idaho Statesmen.
The budget calls for the state to contribute an additional $137 million for the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare to fund Medicaid over the next year. Total program expenditures, however, will be reduced by $34.6 million over the next year due to the expiration of additional federal funds made available since 2009 through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer has backed down on her effort to trim the state's Medicaid rolls by as many as 280,000 people. Brewer came under heavy fire late last year with her controversial plans to cut Medicaid funding for transplants, as well as drop the 280,000 low-income beneficiaries that had been added to the Medicaid pool via voter referendum about 10 years ago. In a compromise with the state legistlature, Brewer agreed to cut 120,000 people from the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System by freezing enrollment and requiring people in the program to pay more for doctors visits. Last month HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Arizona could cut 250,000 from the program without jeopardizing federal Medicaid matching funds.
Increases in Medicaid recipients as a result of health reform is expect to outstrip the number of primary care physicians willing to treat them, according to a report from The Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC). Further, the states that already have the lowest number of primary care physicians -states in the South and Mountain West--will see the highest increases people covered by Medicaid. "The study's bottom line is that growth in Medicaid enrollment in much of the country will greatly outpace growth in the number of primary care physicians willing to treat new Medicaid patients resulting from increased reimbursement," said HSC Senior Fellow Peter J. Cunningham, PhD., the study's author.
The Kansas Health Policy Authority will soon publish more than 100 proposal for curbing Medicaid costs. The ideas were solicited by Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer from state health and policy organizations as the state looks for between $200 million and $400 million in savings in the program beginning in 2013. Most suggestions came in the areas of benefit changes, eligibility requirements and payment reforms.