Health News
- Medicaid Manager Passport Gives $25,000 To Democratic Group That Has Given Heavily To Committee Backing Conway For Governor
Passport Health Plan, which manages Medicaid care for hundreds of thousands of Kentuckians, gave $25,000 this year to the Democratic Governors Association, "which already this year has given $600,000 to a Democratic super PAC supporting the election of...
- Beshear Says That Even If Republicans Take Over, They Won't Be Willing Or Able To Reverse His Medicaid Expansion
By Al Cross Kentucky Health News Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear may be succeeded by a Republican next year, and the state legislature may even sooner be controlled by Republicans who have objected to his expansion of Medicaid, but he says they won't...
- Beshear Budget Would Expand Oral Health, Cancer Screening, Brain-injury Treatment And Alternatives To Institutionalization
Gov. Steve Beshear's proposed state budget includes money to expand oral health programs, screening for cervical and breast cancer, treatment for Kentuckians with brain injuries and programs to held disabled people stay in their homes or communities....
- As Beshear And Williams Equivocate, Hoover And Mcconnell Say State Should Not Expand Medicaid Under Health Reform
Kentucky Health News The Republican leader of the state House said today that Kentucky should not take advantage of an expansion of Medicaid under federal health reform because it would cost too much once the state starts paying 10 percent of the cost....
- Legislators Question If Medicaid Is Ready For Managed Care
"State lawmakers on Thursday questioned whether the state has the resources and expertise to oversee moving the $6 billion Medicaid program to private, for-profit managed care companies," Beth Musgrave of the Lexington Herald-Leader reports. Staff of...
Health News
Republican lawmaker says state should switch to block-grant system for Medicaid
Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear has argued that his expansion of Medicaid under federal health reform will improve Kentucky's health, but a freshman Republican legislator with experience in state health policy says a whole new approach would do much more for less money, providing funds that could be used to help Kentucky's mental-health agencies or to provide education, public protection and other services.
Rep. Robert Benvenuti of Lexington, former inspector general of the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services, told Ryan Alessi of cn|2 that the state could improve Medicaid with a block-grant system, which could be implemented through a federal waiver. It would effectively end the open-ended approach to Medicaid, meaning that rather than paying a set amount per enrollee, states would be provided with annual lump sums and be free to run the program as they wanted, reports Kaiser Health News.
Republican governors have long lobbied for this flexibility, saying that it would result in a cheaper, more effective program, but the Democratic governor of New York, the independent governor of Rhode Island (who will run for re-election as a Democrat) and the Republican governor of Indiana have been granted waivers to implement a block-grant system, and their results suggest such system could improve Medicaid. Indiana used its waiver to introduce subsidized health savings accounts, which increased satisfaction rates for Medicaid enrollees to 94 percent by granting them more control over their own health dollars, reports Avik Roy of Forbes magazine, writing that Rhode Island saved $1.34 billion from 2008 to 2010, "an astounding figure for such a small state."
Benvenuti said Kentucky's current blanket-coverage system "doesn't provide any incentive with co-pays and deductibles to get the person with diabetes to be more careful about their weight, to manage their diabetic condition better. . . . The more we say we are simply going to blanket our commonwealth with Medicaid recipients, then the less we'll have to target what ultimate will be the solutions: education and true management of health."
A block-grant system provides flexibility to address Kentucky's specific needs, says Benvenuti. ?You would then have money to say ?In Kentucky, what are our health issues?? And we could drive centers of excellence in cardiac care, in drug addiction and mental health much deeper into our commonwealth, much more at a grassroots level and provide that care,? he told Alessi. The cabinet declined to comment.
Throughout his career as a health-care attorney and work with numerous health systems, Benvenuti has focused on fraud and abuse as well as other operational and regulatory issues facing health-care providers. As the cabinet's inspector general, he led "investigations involving more than 3,000 health care facilities and services" across the state, says his website. Here's his interview with Alessi:
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| Rep. Robert Benvenuti |
Republican governors have long lobbied for this flexibility, saying that it would result in a cheaper, more effective program, but the Democratic governor of New York, the independent governor of Rhode Island (who will run for re-election as a Democrat) and the Republican governor of Indiana have been granted waivers to implement a block-grant system, and their results suggest such system could improve Medicaid. Indiana used its waiver to introduce subsidized health savings accounts, which increased satisfaction rates for Medicaid enrollees to 94 percent by granting them more control over their own health dollars, reports Avik Roy of Forbes magazine, writing that Rhode Island saved $1.34 billion from 2008 to 2010, "an astounding figure for such a small state."
Benvenuti said Kentucky's current blanket-coverage system "doesn't provide any incentive with co-pays and deductibles to get the person with diabetes to be more careful about their weight, to manage their diabetic condition better. . . . The more we say we are simply going to blanket our commonwealth with Medicaid recipients, then the less we'll have to target what ultimate will be the solutions: education and true management of health."
A block-grant system provides flexibility to address Kentucky's specific needs, says Benvenuti. ?You would then have money to say ?In Kentucky, what are our health issues?? And we could drive centers of excellence in cardiac care, in drug addiction and mental health much deeper into our commonwealth, much more at a grassroots level and provide that care,? he told Alessi. The cabinet declined to comment.
Throughout his career as a health-care attorney and work with numerous health systems, Benvenuti has focused on fraud and abuse as well as other operational and regulatory issues facing health-care providers. As the cabinet's inspector general, he led "investigations involving more than 3,000 health care facilities and services" across the state, says his website. Here's his interview with Alessi:
- Medicaid Manager Passport Gives $25,000 To Democratic Group That Has Given Heavily To Committee Backing Conway For Governor
Passport Health Plan, which manages Medicaid care for hundreds of thousands of Kentuckians, gave $25,000 this year to the Democratic Governors Association, "which already this year has given $600,000 to a Democratic super PAC supporting the election of...
- Beshear Says That Even If Republicans Take Over, They Won't Be Willing Or Able To Reverse His Medicaid Expansion
By Al Cross Kentucky Health News Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear may be succeeded by a Republican next year, and the state legislature may even sooner be controlled by Republicans who have objected to his expansion of Medicaid, but he says they won't...
- Beshear Budget Would Expand Oral Health, Cancer Screening, Brain-injury Treatment And Alternatives To Institutionalization
Gov. Steve Beshear's proposed state budget includes money to expand oral health programs, screening for cervical and breast cancer, treatment for Kentuckians with brain injuries and programs to held disabled people stay in their homes or communities....
- As Beshear And Williams Equivocate, Hoover And Mcconnell Say State Should Not Expand Medicaid Under Health Reform
Kentucky Health News The Republican leader of the state House said today that Kentucky should not take advantage of an expansion of Medicaid under federal health reform because it would cost too much once the state starts paying 10 percent of the cost....
- Legislators Question If Medicaid Is Ready For Managed Care
"State lawmakers on Thursday questioned whether the state has the resources and expertise to oversee moving the $6 billion Medicaid program to private, for-profit managed care companies," Beth Musgrave of the Lexington Herald-Leader reports. Staff of...