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Medicaid News
Bush Medicaid Panel Proposes Moving Nursing Home
Residents into Managed Care Plans
Democrats called the commission "nothing by a
farce"
By EdlerLawAnswers.com
 November 25, 2006 - Moving nursing home residents
into managed care plans is among the recommendations that will be
included in the final report of the Bush administration's Medicaid
Commission.
The commission, created as part of a congressional
budget resolution in 2005, was charged with the task of making long-term
recommendations for the federal health care program for low-income
individuals, including nursing home residents who cannot pay for their
own care.
Health and Human Services Secretary Michael O. Leavitt chose
the panel's 12 voting members. Democratic lawmakers were offered a
non-voting role, but
declined to participate, with
Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Wa.) calling the study commission "nothing but
a farce."
The commission's members adopted the
recommendations by a vote of 11 to 1, and are drafting a report to be
submitted to Leavitt in December.
Among the proposals is that states should be
allowed to enroll some of the sickest Medicaid recipients, including
nursing home residents and people with disabilities, in managed care
plans.
The commission said that such a move would "provide a medical
home and better coordinated care for those who are covered by both
Medicaid and Medicare, whose care is now often fragmented. The proposals
would also give states greater "flexibility" in altering benefits and
eligibility for Medicaid recipients.
The commission's recommendations are unlikely to be
well received by the new Democratic Congress.
Rep. John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), who will be the new
chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, dismissed the study panel
as a hand-picked commission stacked against working families.
Meanwhile, John C. Rother, policy director of
AARP, said, In some states,
flexibility means cutting benefits.
The lone vote against the recommendations came from
Gwendolyn G. Gillenwater, a commission member who is policy director of
the
American Association of People With
Disabilities.
People with disabilities have not had good
experience with managed care, Gillenwater said. We need federal
protections and safeguards. People with disabilities should at least
have a choice of two managed care plans. And what are your choices if
you opt out of managed care? The alternatives are getting more and more
limited.
For an article in the New York Times on the
commission's recommendations,
click here. (Free
registration required and article is available free of charge for only
one week.)
For a paper from the Center on Budget and Policy
Priorities entitled "Medicaid Commission Recommendations Raise Serious
Concerns,"
click here.
>>
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