Published: August 01, 2008 06:08 pm      

5:30 p.m.: Barbour releases Medicaid plan

Barbour outlines Medicaid plans



By Fredie Carmichael

editor@themeridianstar.com





Gov. Haley Barbour said this afternoon he's been given a "green light" from a federal agency to his administrative solution for funding Medicaid — a plan that bypasses the Legislature altogether by not requiring legislative action.

The new formula means funds cut from reimbursement payments to hospitals will be replaced with money from a different Medicaid program.

“Medicaid requires a fair, permanent, sustainable funding solution,

but the legislature hasn’t enacted one," the governor said in a prepared statement. "The Senate passed a fair, permanent, sustainable solution in May but the House has failed to do so. The solution I am announcing today is a fair, permanent, sustainable

way to fully fund Medicaid."

The solution will protect the program by generating $88 million of the $90 million shortfall in the state Medicaid share through increasing the

current gross revenue assessment (GRA) on hospitals. The other $2 million will be generated through cuts of less than 1 percent on other

provider services, according to the governor's office.

The new plan does not eliminate the requirement for cuts in Medicaid expenditures. However, the federal government will replace virtually all

of the cuts through an existing Medicaid program called UPL, or upper payment limit. Current state law allows the state share of the funding

for UPL to be collected through the existing gross revenue assessment on hospitals, according to the governor's office.

As preliminarily approved by the federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) the solution will not cost the state or federal

governments any extra money, and can be implemented September 1.

Locally, Rush Hospital Chief Executive Officer Wallace Strickland, whose hospital stood to take about a $3.8 million hit from the previously announced cuts, said he the governor's plan sounds like a good one.

"We're very familiar with the UPL program and it has brought a lot of Medicaid money to the state," Strickland said. "Without running the numbers, it looks like a fair way to allocate Medicaid moneys throughout the state."