State Health Watch Archives – September 1, 2003
September 1, 2003
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GAO expresses concerns about waivers and their quality control
According to a General Accounting Office report, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services should ensure that state quality assurance efforts adequately protect the health and welfare of Medicaid beneficiaries covered under home and community-based service waivers. -
Debates over fee for service and managed care has states in quandary over how to do business
Hoping to head off suggestions in some financially pressed states that Medicaid should abandon managed care and return to a fee-for-service payment mechanism, the Washington, DC-based Association for Health Care Affiliated Health Plans is publicizing a study it funded that it says demonstrates managed care does a better job of caring for Medicaid beneficiaries than traditional fee for service does. -
GAO report is ‘worrisome,’ according to state official
For Penny Black, the director of home and community services with the Washington Department of Social and Health Services, the GAO report, which is raising questions about quality assurance for Medicaid beneficiaries services by home and community service waivers, is worrisome for its potential impact on the programs, especially when political leaders say future waivers should not be approved until the quality issues are addressed. -
Olmstead response: Make interdepartmental collaboration a priority in your state
Imagine if your family car came in separate parts so that you had to decide which parts were needed, find where you could buy them, and then assemble them yourself. With no overall design for the car and no quality management to make sure the parts fit and determine how well the car is working, what kind of a vehicle do you think youd have and how would you determine how cost-effective it was? That analogy impressed a number of people in Maine as they developed their states response to the U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Olmstead case involving state efforts to provide services to the disabled in a coordinated, least-restrictive environment. -
Clip files / Local news from the states
Medicaid shortfalls plague Illinois; Medicaid to cut dental benefits for WA adults; Medicaid may force elderly to sell homes; Doctors applaud repeal of Medicaid pay cuts; 1,800 could lose Medicaid benefits; Medicaid coverage for 10,000 in state is back on hold