Florida to make higher Medicaid payments; coalition urges Texas legislature to fully fund Medicaid program; and Conn. officials surprised by Medicaid enrollee growth in this week's Medicaid Digest.
Florida will accept federal funds to raise Medicaid payment rates
A spokeswoman for Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration said Florida will start reimbursing doctors on January 1 at a higher rate as dictated by the federal government under the Affordable Care Act. This despite its governor, Rick Scott, also saying it will not implement other provisions of the health law including Medicaid expansion and creating a state-sponsored health insurance exchange.
Shelisha Coleman, told the Miami Herald that despite some details needing to be worked out in the state budget, the state was planning to make the higher payments, which will fall in line with payments made under the federal Medicare program. Florida has one of the lowest Medicaid payment rates in the country, according to the Kaiser Health Foundation, reimbursing physicians, on average, at only 55 percent of the Medicare reimbursement rate. All of the additional monies for reimbursement will be paid for by the federal government.
Coalition of groups dependent on Medicaid call for Texas to fully fund program
A coalition of groups whose constituents rely on Medicaid for their healthcare, including the elderly poor, people with disabilities and parents with children held a pre-Thanksgiving public meeting to call on the state Legislature to fully fund the program. Last year, the state cut Medicaid programs and underfunded it by nearly $4.8 billion.
Texas governor Rick Perry has applied for a waiver with the federal government in his attempt to completely retool the program, which he and other state Republican lawmakers warn could bankrupt the state with its rising costs. According to a report in the Houston Chronicle, when the legislature convenes next year, it would need to make up for the program deficit by March, or face shutting it down, leaving the 3.6 million people it serves without health coverage.
Connecticut officials puzzled by Medicaid enrollment surge
Enrollment in Connecticut's Medicaid for Low-Income Adults, established in 2010 to replace a state-funded form or insurance coverage now tops more than 83,000 members nearly 37,000 more than the state anticipated or budgeted for, according to a recent report in the Connecticut Mirror. The administration of Gov. Dannel P. Malloy says it is a significant factor in why the state is operating at a budget deficit. Advocates for Medicaid recipients, however, say it is unfair to pin the blame on the overrun of members.
Meanwhile, state officials and others in the healthcare sector are puzzled by the influx, which many didn't anticipate until late summer next year. The Malloy administration has speculated that many of the 37,000 are people who wouldn't traditionally qualify for Medicaid and may include students not on their parents' health plans, or retirees with high levels of assets but low monthly income. Patient advocates surmise the added enrollees are people who have become unemployed since the beginning of the recession, and may also be those who would receive care provided by sate grants or under providers' charity care programs.