State Medicaid Programs

Posted on February 10, 2012 by townsend

• N.J. to disperse $40M in federal Medicaid funding to hospitals, clinics investing in electronic records, By Susan K. Livio, February 9, 2012, Star-Ledger: “The state this week is distributing $40 million in federal Medicaid funds to reward 30 hospitals and 40 physician practices that have been enterprising enough to invest in an electronic medical record system designed to improve care and catch mistakes, state health and human services officials announced today…”
• Health care providers say Medicaid managed care riddled with problems, By Beth Musgrave and Valarie Honeycutt Spears, February 9, 2012, Lexington Herald-Leader: “The baby was coming, no matter what a managed care company had to say. But when a woman in labor went to one of Appalachian Regional Healthcare’s eight Kentucky hospitals before Christmas, the hospital was told by one of three managed care companies that now run Medicaid in much of Kentucky that it must get preauthorization to deliver the baby in order to get paid. Fourteen days after the woman and baby went home, the hospital still was waiting for approval to deliver the baby, said Joe Grossman, vice president and chief financial officer of Appalachian Regional Healthcare. Grossman was one of several people to testify Wednesday before a Senate panel about problems with private companies that are now managing Medicaid care in Kentucky…”
• Quinn to Obama: Illinois pressing ahead on Medicaid reforms, By Ray Long and Alissa Groeninger, February 10, 2012, Chicago Tribune: “As President Barack Obama presses forward with his signature health care law, his fellow Illinois Democrats running state government have waited more than a year to win federal approval for a new plan to fight fraud in the health program for 2.7 million of the state’s poorest residents. Facing increasing Republican pressure to put reforms in place, Quinn’s team told the Obama administration this week that Illinois will wait no longer. Later this month, the state’s Healthcare and Family Services Department will start matching addresses of people enrolled in Medicaid against Illinois secretary of state driving records to ensure that care for the poor is going to people who actually live in Illinois. The Quinn administration also is putting together a plan to check income eligibility and plans to roll it out soon, officials said…”