Cuomo quietly raises hospital Medicaid rates as election nears

In a move just days before Election Day that boosts a powerful union ally, Gov. Cuomo has quietly increased Medicaid rates to hospitals and nursing homes, according to a report Friday.

The state Health Department notified the public of a 2 percent hike for hospitals and 1.5 percent nursing homes on page 90 of Thursday’s New York State Register.

The increase will benefit thousands of workers represented by the hospital workers union, Service Employees Union Local 1199, which endorsed Cuomo for a third term months earlier this year.

The Empire Center’s Bill Hammond, who first spotted the rate hike notice, said it was a “replay of the notorious” election year deal that former Gov. George Pataki inked in 2002 with the same union — which endorsed the governor for re-election that year.

A memo circulated by LeadingAge, a coalition of nursing home providers, said the increase will be financed from $2 billion the state received to approve the sale of Fidelis Care to Centene.

It is long overdue that the formula for the federal reimbursement to the states for Medicaid be changed.

At present it can reward states that are too generous in their Medicaid benefits, and it pays no less than 50% of a state’s Medicaid expenses, no matter how generous that state’s Medicaid program is. You offer more than some other states in Medicaid benefits and you sill get no less than 50% of your higher expenses paid for.

Additionally, while the federal portion can be no less than 50%, it can be higher if the states is contributing less, because the actual formally looks not at how expensive or frugal the Medicaid program is in a state, but instead looks at the GDP of the state compared to the GDO if the whole U.S., and demands smaller contributions from “poorer” states.

The formula should be thrown out.

The federal portion should be based on the per capita Medicaid expenses of a state compared to the national median per capita Medicaid expenses across all the states. Then the federal portion should be no higher than 50% of that median rate of expenses. That will impose more fiscal responsibility on the states, because if they make their Medicaid expenses higher than the national median rate, they will pick up 100% of that higher cost themselves.

Then we have the Obamacare act which tried to mandate all the states make their Medicaid expenses higher and offered 100% federal reimbursement for those greater expenses, for a few years. Of course that “for a few years” aspect was a political ploy. It is and was a political ploy to set up a push for 100% federal payment for Medicaid. When that “few years” is up and the states will have to pay for the additions mandated in Obamacare, the state politicians will push their federal representatives to just continue that 100%, and eventually to just “unburden” the states from paying anything for Medicaid themselves.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.