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Lawmakers told Medicaid supplemental requests and provider-rate cuts are driving Health and Welfare budget growth
Summary
Representative Tanner and LSO staff told the committee that Medicaid supplementals and provider-rate changes are the largest single-year cost drivers. Tanner cited a $107 million supplemental and a $61 million Medicaid supplemental figure tied to provider-rate reductions.
Representative Josh Tanner described recurring supplemental requests on Medicaid as the primary driver of Health and Welfare budget increases. "Now when we talk about control, we look at it this year alone. We've got a $100,000,000 was a $107,000,000 supplemental that was originally sent in," Tanner said, and later clarified a Medicaid-specific supplemental was about $61,000,000 tied to provider-rate adjustments.
Tanner and members discussed a recent 4% provider rate cut and the practical limits on steering patient behavior under federal Medicaid rules. Tanner said the state cannot force beneficiaries to seek alternatives to emergency care, noting "we cannot actually tell them, hey, go see Dory, and get healthy so you can stay out of the hospital." Committee members raised concerns about downstream cost-shifting to counties and corrections if behavioral-health services are reduced.
