A state task force of medical and hospital officials charged with identifying potential cuts to the Medicaid system has come up with 79 suggestions to reduce the cost of the program.
The team has recommended a two percent rate cut to Medicaid providers, the construction of service networks and health homes for people with ongoing medical conditions and a transition to managed care that would include managed behavioral health care coordination for people with serious mental health and substance use conditions. Critics expressed concern that this would apply to home care services but would not include nursing homes.
The team also recommended a four percent limit on the growth of the program and “industry-led” reductions to save $640 million.
Twenty-one of the 25 members present voted in favor of the proposal and four members abstained. Two were absent.
Assembly Member Richard Gottfried, chair of the Assembly’s Health Committee, abstained from voting on the plan and recently told reporter Brian Lehrer on WNYC, “We're trying to move more patients, the more difficult, high cost ones – people with disabilities, people on long term care, with mental illness – to move these populations into various forms of care coordination and management. Increasing investment in primary and preventive care.”
Leah Farrell, policy analyst at the Center for Disability Rights, Inc. said in a statement, “Many of the proposals directly impact people with disabilities and threaten our freedom to live in the community.”
Those include reductions in personal care services, prescription drug limits, new co-payments and requirements for seniors and people with disabilities to accept managed care.
“There are provisions in the bill that give the Department of Health Commissioner extraordinary authority to cut rates, impose caps, reduce hours, etc. that effect how you are supported to live independently in the community. This is unprecedented and this will have the largest impact on people with the most significant disabilities,” Farrell said.
Critics also said the team has rushed the process, voting on a plan several days in advance of its deadline.
Susan Dooha, executive director of the Center for Independence of the Disabled in New York told The Journal News, “It’s outrageous that the state has railroaded this plan through without letting these recommendations be publicly debated or even seen on their website in advance.”
The New York State Medicaid Redesign Team, which was created by Governor Andrew Cuomo, held six regional hearings prior to making its determinations. The team has been assigned to recommend measures that would reduce the Medicaid budget by $2 billion.
New York State Medicaid Director Jason Helgerson is the team’s executive director. Members also include Ed Matthews, chief executive officer of United Cerebral Palsy of New York City and Max Chmura, acting commissioner of the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities.
If approved, the changes will take effect in the state’s fiscal 2011-12 budget, which is scheduled to begin April 1. The redesign team must submit quarterly reports through the end of the 2011-12 fiscal year, when it’s work will be completed.
This article was published in the April 2011 issue of Able News.
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