Newspapers Examine Proposed Medicaid Rules' Effects On States

Main Category: Medicare / Medicaid / SCHIP
Article Date: 10 Mar 2008 - 7:00 PDT

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Several newspapers recently published articles examining how proposed Medicaid rule changes announced by the Bush administration could affect states. Summaries of the articles appear below:

• Colorado: Patricia Gabow, CEO of the safety-net hospital Denver Health, said that the estimated $157 million per year that the state would lose under the changes represents "the most potentially devastating issue we have faced in more than three decades," the Denver Post reports. According to a recent report from House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Democrats, federal Medicaid payments to Colorado would be cut by $787 million over five years. Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) said that about 90% of the loss would come from new rules that would exclude Denver Health and University Hospital as safety-net hospitals. Safety-net hospitals receive higher reimbursements for treating more uninsured patients (Human/Ingold, Denver Post, 3/5).
  
  
• Florida: Health care providers in Florida said the state and federal cuts to Medicaid will hinder the health care industry and hurt low-income people who depend on the program, the Miami Herald reports. The funding reductions are hitting nursing homes in particular because Medicare does not pay for extended nursing home care, according to the Herald. In addition to cuts from the federal government, Gov. Charlie Crist (R) has proposed eliminating $192 million in inflation-related funding. To combat the funding loss, state lawmakers have proposed a $1 fee be added to the admission charge of adult entertainment clubs to help fund Medicaid payments to nursing homes. State Rep. Marco Rubio (R) said that Florida's Medicaid program is "unsustainable," adding that it takes up 22% of the state's budget and is projected to increase to 27% over the next three years (Dorschner, Miami Herald, 3/6).
  
  
• Oklahoma: Oklahoma has joined Maine, Maryland and New Jersey in a federal lawsuit against HHS that claims the agency overstepped its bounds by implementing Medicaid rule changes that would eliminate tens of millions of dollars in appropriations for each state, the Daily Oklahoman reports. One rule change, which took effect Monday, narrows a field of state workers paid by Medicaid who connect youth and developmentally disabled residents with appropriate social services. Mike Fogarty, CEO of the Oklahoma Health Care Authority, said the agency can no longer pay claims related to targeted case management because of the new rule (Rabe, Daily Oklahoman, 3/4).

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