[NYAPRS Enews] GNS: NYS Medicaid Redesign Team's Work Continues

[Harvey Rosenthal]

Governor's Medicaid Redesign Team's Work Continues

By Cara Matthews  Gannett News Service  May 6, 2011



ALBANY -- The Medicaid Redesign Team submitted a plan in February to cut
$2.4 billion out of the health care program for the poor, but its work
is not finished.

Members of the panel, set up by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, have to get more
public input, best implement changes that have been made so far, and
develop recommendations on how to further reform the $53 billion
program.

The team is planning meetings and public hearings around the state in
the next six months and will present recommendations by November. Its
next meeting -- the first since late February -- is scheduled for
Thursday in New York City. The following one is July 1 in New Paltz,
Ulster County, and others will be in Brooklyn, the Bronx and Albany.

The panel will hold six regional public hearings between May and Nov. 1,
according to the state Health Department. Possible locations include
Jamestown, Chautauqua County; Syracuse; Binghamton; Plattsburgh; Suffolk
County; and Queens.

The team's next report to the governor is due in November, which will
give Cuomo time to consider it in developing his 2012-13 budget
proposal. The current 2011-12 fiscal year runs until March 31.

While the first phase of the team's work was primarily focused on
cost-containment, the next will be centered on the quality and integrity
of the program going forward, said team member Lara Kassel, coordinator
for Medicaid Matters New York, which represents recipients.

Members of the panel received a draft plan from the state Health
Department on where the team goes from here and submitted their
comments.

Kassel's group was disappointed in the first phase of the Medicaid
Redesign Team's work, which didn't take the public's input into account
as much as Medicaid Matters had hoped, she said.

"We didn't fully see that in the first phase and we hope that can be
corrected for the second phase," she said.

Cuomo set up the team in January, and it needed to submit its plan in
time to be considered in 2011-12 budget deliberations, so time was
limited.

The draft plan from the Health Department calls for forming nine
subcommittees, each of which will be co-chaired by two members of the
Medicaid Redesign Team. Between 12 and 15 people from stakeholder groups
will serve on each subcommittee.

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