Faux crisis, bad optics and more funding needed for Medicaid

Last year, during the 2016 Special Legislative Session, a crisis was created to convince the Legislature to allocate over a hundred million dollars to shore-up the State’s Medicaid program.

In a conversation with The Alabama Political Reporter, Medicaid Commissioner Stephanie Azar admitted her agency cut payments to doctors, even though it had the money to pay them. Azar said the cuts were necessary to carry as much money as possible into 2017.

Azar denied the reduction of physician reimbursement was part of a manufactured crisis, but pro-Medicaid lobbyists close to the situation admitted to APR it was in fact a faux crisis.

The reductions in physician reimbursements created the illusion that the program’s funding was in dire need of an immediate increase, even though the money was sitting in the agency’s account.

Read more: http://www.alreporter.com/2017/02/01/faux-crisis-bad-optics-and-more-funding-needed-for-medicaid/