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Although governors' proposed budgets for fiscal 2012 showed a 2.9% decline in Medicaid spending, state funds going to the program are predicted to increase by 18.6%, according to a spring 2011 report from the National Governors Association and the National Association of State Budget Officers.
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The approval of a Bridge waiver in January 2011 "rescued" Washington state's Basic Health plan, according to Doug Porter, the state's Medicaid director, and should give the state a preview of Medicaid expansion. "We're now drawing down federal matching funds for a program that was previously all state funded," he says.
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Some states are contemplating asking the federal government for a "waiver" of the standard Medicaid requirements modeled after Rhode Island's, which was implemented in 2009, says Jesse Cross-Call, a policy associate on the Health Policy team at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington, DC.
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Individuals with Medicaid coverage were 70% more likely to have a regular medical office to obtain basic care, 55% more likely to have a personal doctor, and obtained more preventive care than an uninsured group, according to a new study.
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Most states can come out ahead financially under health care reform, according to Stan Dorn, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute in Washington, DC, noting that a December 2010 Urban Institute study found that states would see net budget savings of between $40.6 billion and $131.9 billion from 2014 to 2019 because of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
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Nearly 80% of 13,069 uninsured patients in the ERs of four San Diego hospitals over an 11-month period were eligible for some form of government insurance, yet weren't enrolled, according to a Point-of-Service ER Survey conducted by the San Jose, CA-based Foundation for Health Coverage Education (FHCE).
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The global waiver that was granted to Rhode Island in 2009 allows the state to operate its Medicaid program in a way that is different than otherwise required under statute and still receive federal matching funds, according to Elena Nicolella, the state's Medicaid director.
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Medicaid directors have been concerned that they would have to set up duplicative or "shadow" eligibility systems to distinguish between current eligibles and new eligibles under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), according to Tricia Brooks, a senior fellow at the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families in Washington, DC.
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The Affordable Care Act (ACA) will cost states $118 billion through 2023, according to the March 2011 Joint Congressional Committee report, Medicaid Expansion in the New Health Law: Costs to the States, while a March 2011 analysis from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated a cost of $60 billion through 2021.
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Recognizing that hospital readmissions are costly for providers and insurers alike, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois and the Illinois Hospital Association are collaborating on a quality initiative to reduce the rate of hospital readmissions.
