Medicaid quick fix approved
(2/23/02 Clarion Ledger, MS) By Patrice Sawyer

The state House and Senate on Friday approved a short-term fix for the cash-strapped Medicaid program, though some lawmakers expressed regret about the solution.

Lawmakers backing House Bill 1200 are breaking their promise not to raid the tobacco trust fund. They also are curtailing services to Medicaid recipients and reducing reimbursements by 5 percent to doctors and hospitals to help shrink the $158 million Medicaid shortfall.

"There ain't nothing about it I really like," House Public Health and Welfare Committee Chairman Bobby Moody, D-Louisville, said of the bill before the House voted. "This is an opportunity today to keep Medicaid afloat. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the only horse that's going now."

Medicaid will run out of state dollars in less than a week if money isn't provided soon, Moody said.

The federal-state program serves about 650,000 needy, elderly and disabled Mississippians.

The House voted by a large margin, 94-20 for the final bill, but the vote in the Senate was much closer. The vote was 23-15, with 14 senators absent or pairing their votes, which allows senators to record their positions without being counted.

The legislation could reappear in the Senate for more debate next week. The bill was held on a motion for reconsideration after a long debate before the vote.

Gov. Ronnie Musgrove wouldn't say Friday what he'll do when the bill reaches his desk, but he said he will study it closely.

"I still have some real reservations about using the tobacco trust fund money for the Medicaid budget shortfall," he said.

Musgrove said "a good, thought-out plan is needed," and he presented one in January.

But lawmakers rejected his health-care proposal to use one-time money for the deficit this year and future payments from the tobacco lawsuit settlement to address health care in the future.

"There is an urgency to passing legislation, but at the same time, because lawmakers ran up to the deadline to force the acceptance should not be the only reason to take a piece of legislation," the governor said.

Nursing homes were removed from the 5 percent cut but will be assessed an extra $1 for beds, raising the bed tax from $2 to $3.

Moody, a chief author of the original bill, said he preferred to go with assessing providers fees rather than cutting their reimbursements because the state would reap the benefits from a 3-to-1 match of federal dollars on the additional money. Cuts would lessen the amount of dollars available for matches.

House Bill 1200 calls for $87 million to be used this year from the Health Care Trust Fund, which was set up with money from the state's tobacco settlement, and $21 million from the Health Care Expendable Fund. Next year's $144 million tobacco payment will also be used.

The money will be repaid when the economy resurges.

Moody said the bill is a "temporary Band-Aid" and it doesn't address all of the needs for this year nor the next year.

With the legislation, the Medicaid program is still $17 million short of what it needs for fiscal 2002, which ends June 30. Medicaid requested $537 million in state funds for fiscal 2003, but the Joint Legislative Budget Committee has recommended only $249. 5 million for the agency.

Rep. Jim Evans, D-Jackson, said he was torn over what to do. He said he was against lowering the number of prescriptions from 10 to seven as the legislation requires, but at the same time, Medicaid is in a financial quagmire.

"It's a troubling thing to be called on to vote for something you know is not right, but if you don't vote for it, Medicaid is in trouble," said Evans, who voted against the final bill.

Sen. Deborah Dawkins, D-Pass Christian, asked Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee Chairman Bunky Huggins why, in tight budget times, didn't House and Senate negotiators agree to assess fees on all providers and include more providers in the program to share the cost.

Huggins, R-Greenwood, said it was a tough decision not to assess fees on all providers. But he said the fee proposal was unfair because it required all providers, including those with few or no Medicaid recipients, to pay.

"The biggest problem we had to wrestle with was what was fair," Huggins said.

Rep. Steve Holland, D-Plantersville, said other cost containment measures must be taken in the future but House Bill 1200 is a start. "It's a work in progress, but a first step in doing what must be done," he said.