Medicaid reforms good but not enough

The Medicaid reforms recommended this week by a state legislative committee aren’t new ideas. Still, it makes sense to crack down on fraud and inefficiencies and encourage the use of home-based services, rather than more expensive nursing homes. These reforms, however, likely won’t be enough to halt the annual increases in state Medicaid costs, which are the biggest budget challenge facing the state.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee

3 Comments

  1. Damoon
    Posted November 26, 2005 at 7:49 am | Permalink

    Medicaid cut back home based services 3 yrs ago, only to find out that it really didn’t save money due to increased hospitalizations and nursing home placements. Now hopefully the pedulum will swing back the other way, because people have the need to stay independant in their homes and home based services make this possible. It saves money and the disabled and elderly are happier when they have their independance, so it’s a win/win situation.

  2. J M Walker
    Posted November 26, 2005 at 4:43 pm | Permalink

    My mother, when she was in a different state, had to go to her doctor every time she wanted a prescription refilled. That’s fraud. When she moved to a different state, the same doctor did an exorbitant amount of tests on her. That’s fraud.

    When I started with a new doctor in my area, he tried the same thing. I told him my opinion of fraud, and he never asked me again for an unnecessary test. I wonder, though, just how many times this same thing happens? Much of the increase in medical treatments can be directly related to fraud.

    I’m all for the feds sending in test cases and pulling the licenses of the moronic thief’s who perpetrate the fraud. Stealing is stealing. Nail the thief’s to the wall.

  3. JWink
    Posted November 26, 2005 at 8:07 pm | Permalink

    J.M.W.: Yes, if crooked doctors and crooked lawyers could be barred from contacting the elderly in nursing homes, I think Medicaid could continue to function as it’s supposed to.