- Texas Tribune: Dewhurst, Nelson Tout Proposals to Curb Medicaid Costs.
Dewhurst said Senate Bills 7 and 8, filed by Nelson, the chairwoman of the Senate Health and Human Services Committee, would bring down ballooning state Medicaid costs. “What we’re trying to do, Senator Nelson and myself, is improve the quality of health care for our Medicaid population” by providing incentives that lead to better patient outcomes.There's more along those lines from the Houston Chronicle, the Dallas Morning News, and Austin American-Statesman.
SB 7 would redesign long-term and acute care services for the disabled and elderly — the most costly services in Medicaid — by instituting quality-based payment systems and expanding Medicaid managed care to cover services provided in nursing facilities.
SB 8 would ensure that providers found guilty of Medicaid fraud in Texas or other states would be barred from participating in the state’s program, strengthen prohibitions against marketing to Medicaid patients, add medical transportation services to managed care and enable the Health and Human Services Commission's Office of Inspector General to establish a new data system to catch Medicaid fraud earlier.
Dewhurst ruled out expanding Medicaid coverage as encouraged under the Affordable Care Act. The expansion is primarily paid for by the national government, but Texas is among a handful of states that do not wish to comply. That could be something we discuss in 2306 next week since we will be talking about Texas within the federal system. Remember that Texas provides medical assistance to the poor not because it wants to, but because it is enticed to (or subtly coerced to if you prefer) by the national government.
Cool graphic from KUT:
