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Panel
Hears Ideas to Cut Medicaid Spending
Richmond Times-Dispatch
September 14, 2005
A panel of Republican legislators listened to suggestions yesterday for reducing state Medicaid spending, including promoting individual responsibility, disease management programs and pay-for-performance incentives for providers.
The Medicaid Reform Task Force was created by Speaker of the House William J. Howell of Stafford County as a standing work group, said Del. Phillip A. Hamilton of Newport News, the task force's chairman.
"Every state is trying to deal with changes at the federal level to Medicaid," Hamilton said. "We are trying to be proactive and look at work other groups have already done."
Hamilton said some policies that the legislature already has looked at are also on the table. They include restrictions on asset transfers by elderly residents to qualify for Medicaid to cover nursing-home costs.
"Long-term care is going to continue to be on the agenda. The possibility of health savings accounts for Medicaid recipients is going to be on the agenda," Hamilton said. The meeting was held at the General Assembly Building.
Yesterday's speakers included Paul M. Allen, an independent health-care consultant who is also in the Colonial Area Republican Men's Association. Allen, who said he was formerly a Medicaid administrator in another state, described Virginia's Medicaid program as "cheap."
Virginia's Medicaid program is regarded as one of the most restrictive to qualify for. The Virginia Medicaid program budget, which is funded 50-50 with state and federal dollars, is expected to reach $5 billion for fiscal year 2006. Most of the money is spent on care for elderly and disabled residents, who make up about 30 percent of recipients and 74 percent of program expenditures.
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Approximately 18 percent of Medicaid expenditures are spent on children, who are 54 percent of recipients. -- Tammie Smith
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