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House Panel Halts New Medicaid RulesAssociated Press The House Energy and Commerce Committee Subcommittee on Health, by voice vote, approved a measure that would impose a moratorium on seven new Medicaid regulations for at least one year. Leading the opposition to the new Medicaid rules was Energy and Commerce Chair John Dingell, D-Mich., whose amendment the committee adopted. Dingell had previously promised disability advocates that he would stop the draconian Medicaid rules. Dingell’s proposal ensured that only the seven new regulations would be blocked and that the bill (HR 5613: known as “Protecting the Medicaid Safety Net Act of 2008,” would not apply to any future regulations. The amendment was a compromise with Republicans, who had expressed concern about the overall measure but generally support it. Two-thirds of the Republicans joined every voting Democrat in the 349-62 vote to impose a one-year moratorium, through April 1st, 2009. The governors of all 50 states, state Medicaid directors and others oppose the rules. The proposed Medicaid regulations would have reduced health care coverage for pregnant women, low-income children, nursing home residents and other groups. The seven rule changes at issue aim to restrict services covered by some states’ case management plans, limit Medicaid reimbursement to public hospitals, narrow federal Medicaid reimbursement eligibility for outpatient hospital services, bar federal reimbursement for transportation to school and school-based care for Medicaid-eligible children, restrict the types of “rehabilitative” services covered by federal funding, cut federal Medicaid reimbursement for students at teaching hospitals, and limit taxes some states charge health care providers. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that the rule changes would save Medicaid about $17.8 billion over five years. The budget office estimated that the measure would cost about $1.65 billion because CBO already has projected savings from the rule changes over the next year. The bill requires the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to submit a report to Congress that identifies the prevalence of fraud and abuse in the areas the regulation changes seek to remedy, explains how the rules would address those issues and cites the legal authority for the rule changes. HHS also would be required to hire an independent contractor to evaluate and assess the impact of the rule changes on each state, as well as identify the prevalence of fraud and abuse and strategies that are in place to deal with those issues. Lawmakers on the panel also added a provision to the measure that would allocate an additional $25 million annually to HHS to reduce Medicaid fraud and abuse. *******************************
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