States and Medicaid Cuts

Posted on June 27, 2011 by townsend

• Medicaid health providers brace for new round of fee reductions, By Christine Vestal, June  27, 2011, Stateline.org: “There are only three ways a state can reduce its Medicaid burden, and two of them are highly problematical. Cutting the number of people served by Medicaid is generally prohibited by the new national health law. So is denying coverage to patients for visits to hospitals and doctors, although “optional” benefits such as prescription drugs and mental health treatment can be dropped. But the one Medicaid cost that states have usually been able to cut without worrying too much about the federal government is reimbursement to the providers themselves. And that is what most of them are doing this year…”
• Court refuses to stop Arizona from scaling back Medicaid program for poor, By Howard Fischer, June 24, 2011, East Valley Tribune: “The Arizona Supreme Court late Friday refused to block the state from scaling back its health care program for the poor next week. In a brief order, the justices rejected the petition by several public interest law firms to forbid the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System from changing eligibility standards effective this coming Friday, a move that eventually would leave about 150,000 who otherwise are eligible without care. Vice Chief Justice Andrew Hurwitz, who signed the order, gave no reason for the ruling. But attorney Tim Hogan from the Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest said he and others opposed to the cuts will make one more last-ditch effort on Monday to convince a lower court judge to issue an injunction…”