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Sen. Quick warns budget shortfall could reduce services, cites Medicaid cuts that left some autism providers unable to take patients
Summary
Visiting Sen. Quick told Hall County commissioners the upcoming short legislative session will hinge on a state budget shortfall and warned recent Medicaid rate reductions have already caused some ABA providers to stop taking Medicaid patients, affecting roughly 15 children locally.
Sen. Quick, addressing the Hall County Board of Commissioners, said the short legislative session will be dominated by a state budget shortfall and warned that cuts can have immediate local consequences. "The budget shortfall is probably gonna be the biggest concern for us," he said, adding that Medicaid rate changes had already reduced available services for children with autism.
He described an interim study and provider visits on applied behavior analysis (ABA) services and said that, when Medicaid rates were negotiated down, "they cut the rates in half," leaving some providers unable to accept Medicaid patients. "There's 15 kids who are receiving services for these ABA services who won't receive those now," Sen. Quick said, describing provider withdrawals as an example of how rate changes can cascade into lost services.
The senator also discussed other pressures on state and local budgets: potential elimination of the inheritance tax, pressure to shift costs to counties, and cuts that can affect rural health care and workforce-housing programs. He said he plans to raise these matters with the Health and Human Services Committee and the governor's office and urged local officials to raise concerns with legislators: "Sometimes we end up maybe cutting services to people who really need them."
Commissioners asked about where cuts might come from and about passthrough reimbursements; a board member said Midland Area Agency on Aging reported a roughly $400,000 delay in federal passthrough payments from the state. Sen. Quick said he would follow up with agency staff to investigate the reimbursement delays.
The meeting included questions about tax-policy options — ranging from luxury taxes to taxing online gaming and medical cannabis — and the senator said revenue choices are being weighed by the Revenue and Appropriations committees. He also cautioned that term limits and turnover in the legislature have reduced institutional knowledge, complicating policy work.
No formal action by the board resulted from the presentation; Sen. Quick encouraged local officials to contact his office with specific program data and said he would seek follow-up on the ABA-provider and reimbursement concerns.
