Category Archives: Number of Medicaid Enrollees
Kaiser Foundation: Estimates of the American Health Care Act
This data note reviews the Medicaid estimates included in the American Health Care Act prepared by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and staff at the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT).
Medicare chief Tavenner stepping down; oversaw rocky health care rollout
News Alert: Medicare Chief Tavenner stepping down!!!!
Here is the article:
WASHINGTON — Medicare chief Marilyn Tavenner — who oversaw the rocky rollout of the president’s health care law — says she’s stepping down at the end of February.
In an email Friday to staff at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Tavenner, a former Virginia health secretary and hospital executive, said she’s leaving with “sadness and mixed emotions.”
Tavenner survived the 2013 technology meltdown of HealthCare.gov, but was embarrassed last fall when she testified to Congress that 7.3 million people were enrolled for coverage. That turned out to be an overcount that exaggerated the total by about 400,000.
Calling Tavenner “one of our most esteemed and accomplished colleagues,” Health and Human Services Secrerary Sylvia M. Burwell said the decision to leave was Tavenner’s.
Principal deputy administrator Andy Slavitt will take over as acting administrator.
Haven’t Fixed Medicaid Yet…But I Haven’t Gotten Bucked Off Yet
There are a number of federal regulations that, if I were in charge, would be immediately amended. Obviously, I am not in charge, so despite my best blogging efforts, my blogs do not change federal law. Today, however, I had the honor and privilege to speak to someone who may have the clout and political pull to fix some of the calamities found in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFRs) that are so detrimental to health care providers who accept Medicare and Medicaid across the country.
My husband, daughter, and I ride horses nearly every weekend. We ride Western and on trails all over North Carolina and Virginia, mostly on charity rides. And over the past few years, I have, sadly, gone through over 5 horses. Not because the horses have passed. But because each horse had an oddity or behavior issue that either (a) I didn’t want to deal with; or (2) terrified me.
For example, Twist of Luck (Twist) is a gorgeous pure, white horse with a yellow tail and mane and brilliant, blue eyes. But he was what you call, “proud cut.” Meaning that because he sired so many foals, even after he became a gelding he thought like a stallion. One weekend we were at Uwharrie National Park and when I saddled up Twist and mounted him, he decided that he did not want me on his back. My husband said Twist looked like a “poster horse” for a rodeo with his back completely rounded like an angry cat and all four of his hooves in the air. Needless to say, I found myself quite quickly on the ground with a sore tooshie, and Twist found himself sold.
Since I do not have the time to actually train my horse, I need a trained horse.
With my hobby of horseback riding, a well-trained horse is imperative…not only for safety, but for my enjoyment as well.
In the area of Medicare and Medicaid, it is imperative for enough physicians, dentists, and other health care providers to accept Medicare and Medicaid. You see, health care providers choose to accept Medicare and Medicaid. And not all health care providers agree to accept Medicare or Medicaid. But it is important for enough health care providers to accept Medicare and Medicaid patients otherwise the Medicare or Medicaid card in a person’s hand is worthless. Same as Twist was worthless to me that day in Uwharrie. If you can’t ride a horse, what is the point of owning it? If you can’t find a health care provider, what is the use of having coverage?
Here in North Carolina, we decided to not expand Medicaid. This blog is not going to address the ever-growing discontent in the media as to the decision, although you can see my blog: “Medicaid Expansion: Bad for the Poor.”
Instead, this blog will address my idea that I pitched to Congresswoman Renee Ellmers over lunch last week and discussed today with her legislative counsel today as to how it can be implemented.
Here’s my idea:
According to most data, not expanding Medicaid in North Carolina is affecting approximately 1.6 million uninsured North Carolinians. But to my point of the shortage of health care providers accepting Medicaid, what is the point of having an insurance card that no health care provider accepts? Therefore, I propose a pilot program here in NC…a pilot program to help the approximate 1.6 million uninsured in NC. Besides the moral issue that everyone deserves quality health care, fiscally, it is sound to provide the uninsured with quality health care (notice that I did not say to provide the uninsured with Medicaid). When the uninsured go to emergency rooms it costs the taxpayers more than if the uninsured had an insurance policy that would allow primary care and specialty doctor appointments. But with Medicaid…you can count out most specialty care, even some basic necessary care like dental care.
Most of the uninsured in NC are non-disabled men. I say this because it is usually easier to get a child on Medicaid with the Early, Periodic, Screening, Diagnostic, Testing (EPSDT) laws. See my blog: “How EPSDT Allows Medicaid Recipients Under the Age of 21 To Receive More Services Than Covered by the State Plan” for an explanation of EPSDT. Many women receive Medicaid based on having dependent children. “In most states, adults without dependent children are ineligible for Medicaid, regardless of their income, and income limits for parents were very low—often below half the poverty level.” See Kaiser Foundation. Which means, generally, many of our uninsured are men without dependents. However, that does not mean they are not fathers. Many of the uninsured are fathers.
Two-thirds of the uninsured live in families where there is at least one full-time worker. However, the percentage of uninsured who live in families with no workers, part-time workers and only one full-time worker has increased 12 percentage points over 5 years. See Demographics.
So how do we help the uninsured without merely handing all uninsured a Medicaid card that will not give them quality health care because not enough trained health care providers accept Medicaid patients?
By giving the uninsured health care insurance, of course! But not Medicaid coverage…oh, no! By giving the uninsured private insurance that will be accepted by all health care providers, all specialists, all durable medical equipment companies, all dentists…
We could partner up with a larger insurer like Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) and create a premium health care insurance on which the insured would pay no premiums or co-pays. Instead, federal grant money would cover the premiums. All that money that NC did not receive based on our decision to not expand Medicaid…can go toward this pilot program to purchase the private insurance for the uninsured.
In order to qualify for this premium, free, private insurance the person must:
1. Be a legal resident;
2. NOT qualify for Medicaid; and
3. Maintain a part time job.
The reasoning behind the criterion of maintaining a part-time job is simple.
It is indisputable that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has motivated employers across America to decrease the number of full-time jobs due to the mandatory expense of employers providing health care to full-time employees.
Obviously, part-time work does not pay well. It is difficult to even maintain a living on part-time work’s low hourly wages. Many people are forced to hold down two-part time jobs in order to survive. If you can not work and receive more government hand outs, what is the incentive to work?
If my idea comes to fruition and many of our uninsured carry a private insurance card and receive quality health care from the providers of their choice, we could create a whole new group of North Carolinians not only contributing to the community by working, but also contributing to their own homes, and improving themselves and those around them.
I don’t want to provide anyone a useless piece of paper that does not provide quality health care. We may as well give everyone a “proud cut” horse that no one could ride.
Thank you, Congresswoman Renee Ellmers, for being willing to listen to me regarding the uninsured and actually follow-up with the intent to implement.
Quality health care is imperative. Necessary. Needed. We need to fix this system.
NCFast: Should We Go Back to Atari???
Computer systems have come a long way. I remember my Tandy3000 when I was growing up (which had Lotus Notes on it). I also remember the best video game was Pong. Yes, slowly, we advanced to Pac Man, Q-bert and Frogger. But when I bought (actually when my parents bought) my Atari, it worked as expected. When I wanted to play the Decathlon, if I wiggled my joy stick fast enough, I could be an Olympian. When I pushed the jump button for Donkey Kong, Mario jumped.
So, now in this day and age of computer advancement, someone please tell me why computer systems put into place in NC for DHHS simply do not work, have glitches, and fail. Seriously! Why, with a price tag of $21 million and counting (although one journalist cites the price tag at $48 million), why does NCFast not work??? NCFast is simply not fast. NCSlow would be more apropos.
NCFast has a Medicaid eligibility backlog of approximately 86,000 applications.
While the food stamp backlog has mostly been cleared, an even larger backlog is looming. Acting Medicaid Director Sandy Terrell warned lawmakers that nearly 86,000 Medicaid applications are delayed beyond federal processing timelines.
Why is a backlog of Medicaid eligibility important?
Imagine you are on Medicaid and pregnant. You apply for Medicaid for your unborn child. And the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) tells you that there is a backlog. Your child is born (healthy), but you cannot take your baby to the pediatrician for the first check-up because the baby has not received a Medicaid card.
Or imagine you are an adult on Medicaid suffering from cancer. April 1, 2014, the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) re-processes your Medicaid eligibility. You have been on Medicaid for years and depend on Medicaid to get your monthly prescriptions for pain, etc. But now it is May 6, 2014, and your Medicaid eligibility has not been processed. You go to the pharmacy that you go to every month and the pharmacist says, “Sorry. We cannot give out medication hoping to get paid in the future. Your Medicaid application has not been processed.”
Are we as North Carolinians just doomed to hire contractors who cannot meet the standards required? Or are we poorly choosing contractors? Are these contractors overstating their abilities? Or are we not conducting due diligence to determine whether these contractors are overstating their abilities?
What if Superman told us, “Trust me! I can fly! I am super strong! I will foil all of your villains!” Only to find out that Superman is Verne Troyer in costume?
Why should we care?
Three reasons:
1. People are not getting food stamps in a timely way.
2. People are not getting Medicaid eligibility applications timely processed.
3. We, as taxpayers, paid for this computer system and expect it to run reasonably well.
My Atari, at least, met expectations!
$12 Million of Illinois Medicaid Dollars Paid for Services Rendered to the Deceased
Who would want state Medicaid dollars paying for services that are not medically necessary? What about services getting paid out for services rendered to dead people?
I mean, I am no doctor, but I fail to see why someone who is deceased would need dentures, dialysis, or a wheelchair.
Yet, the state of Illinois recently identified that it paid overpayments for Medicaid services to roughly 2,900 people after the date of their deaths, equaling approximately $12 million. See AP story.
How do state agencies verify eligibility for the multi-million number of Medicaid recipients within a state? Or, for that matter, how does the federal government determines eligibility for the nation’s Medicare population? Determining eligibility for Medicaid and Medicare is a large-scale, daunting task for both the federal government and the state government.
A key component of Medicaid and Medicare eligibility is that the person receiving the services is alive. Yet Illinois failed to check on the status of Medicaid recipients’ lives.
Improper payments of $12 million for Medicaid services delivered to the deceased are, obviously, disconcerting for taxpayers. We want Medicaid services to be provided to those people who need the services, and I cannot fathom what Medicaid services a deceased person would need.
Apparently, who determines Medicaid eligibility in Illinois has been a hotly, disputed and ideologically polarized debate. Illinois had hired Maximus Health Services, a private company, to verify Medicaid eligibility, including determining which recipients passed away. The company was said to be achieving a Medicaid eligibility-removal rate of 40 percent. Last year the contract between the state of Illinois and Maximus ended and the work was transferred into the hands of state employees.
The question remains in my mind, however, who has the duty to inform the state that a Medicaid recipient has passed away? Is the burden on the state employees to discover the deaths, as it appears to be in Illinois? Are Medicaid providers continuing to bill for deceased recipients? Obviously the deceased person does not have the burden to inform the state of his or her passing. Where should the responsibility lie? And where does it lie?
Illinois Governor Pat Quinn blamed the managed care companies. He stated that, in most of the cases that managed care insurance companies incorrectly billed for Medicaid services for deceased people.
This brings up another entity on which the burden of discovering the deaths of Medicaid recipients may lie.
We, in North Carolina, have a messy, unsupervised managed care organization (MCO) system for those suffering with mental health issues, are developmentally disabled and suffer from substance abuse. We currently have 10 MCOs, which are all in the process of merging to form only 3-4. Are the MCOs responsible for knowing when Medicaid recipients die?
Our State Auditor, Beth Wood, has not conducted a similar audit in North Carolina, to my knowledge, but it would not surprise me if NC is also providing Medicaid services to the deceased.
To my knowledge, the federal government has not conducted an audit of the Medicare services to determine whether Medicare funds are being spent on the deceased. Again, I would not be surprised to discover that Medicare funding is being spent on those whom have passed.
This is yet again another example of how the failure of the state government to supervise itself and its contractors costs taxpayers money.
NC is #1 in USA!! (For Highest Percentage Increase in Total Medicaid Spending)…and What About the Rest of the USA?
On October 21, 2013, the magazine Modern Healthcare published an article, “Medicaid budgets By State,” which showed each state’s total Medicaid spent in 2012, total number of Medicaid enrollees in 2012, and average spending per enrollee in 2012.
Where does North Carolina rank in terms of our Medicaid budget versus other states? We hear constantly that we spend all this needless money on administrative costs of Medicaid. But, in terms of our Medicaid budget, where do we rank? And my next question…do we simply have more Medicaid recipients in NC in relation to other states? Is NC’s average spending per Medicaid enrollee grossly higher or lower than the national average?
Inquiring minds want to know!
Surprisingly, at least to me, Alaska has the highest average spending per Medicaid enrollee: $13,073, on average, per enrollee. But then I thought about, much of Alaska is rural…not only rural , but almost impossible to navigate due to the snow and ice. I don’t know for sure, but I would imagine that getting to and from Medicaid recipients or getting recipients to services (while not always reimbursed by Medicaid) must impact some of the costs.
[Important to note: The average spending per enrollee, to my knowledge, does not mean actual money spent per enrollee. I believe the authors took the total budget and divided it by the number of enrollees. So the average spent per enrollee includes built-in, administrative costs.]
Or…Maybe Alaska has a low number of Medicaid recipients and that is why Alaska spends the most per enrollee…maybe Alaska has a huge Medicaid budget without many recipients on which to spend it…few people, big pie…
I looked.
Alaska had, in 2012, 109,000 Medicaid recipients.
The fewer people you have at Thanksgiving, the bigger the pie pieces. However, interestingly enough, Alaska spent $1.425 million total in Medicaid in 2012. Delaware spent $1.421 in Medicaid in 2012. (Close enough, right?). Yet, Delaware spent $6831, on average, per enrollee. Maybe the pie analogy doesn’t work. Maybe sometimes, even with a big pie and few people, too many rats and ants nibble at the pie.
Out of 50 states, where do you think NC falls? Top 10 highest spender? Bottom 10? Right in the middle?
Drum roll……..
#9.
The only 8 states that spend more than NC per Medicaid recipient are:
1. Alaska
2. New Jersey (somehow that did not surprise me) ($11,433/recipient)
3. Rhode Island (that did surprise me…I mean, look how little RI is…how big a Medicaid budget can it have?) ($11,080/recipient)
4. North Dakota (a less populous state (less tax dollars), I believe) ($10,969/recipient)
5. Pennsylvania ($10,835/recipient)
6. Minnesota (there are big cities there (more tax dollars), no surprise) ($10,080/recipient)
7. Missouri (I went to law school in Missouri. This number surprised me a bit). ($10,022/recipient)
8. Connecticut ($9883/recipient)
9. NC ($9,430/recipient)
Crazy! What about Illinois? With the hugely populous, Windy City and it being Obama’s home state, surely, Medicaid spending per recipient is, at least, in the middle, right?
Wrong. Illinois is dead last with only $5229, on average, per recipient being spent.
Probably because too many people were invited to Thanksgiving…in 2012, Illinois had 2.626 million Medicaid recipients enrolled….or too many rats and ants.
Compare to NC in 2012 – 1.471 million Medicaid recipients.
What was Alaska’s Medicaid budget/spending in 2012 that the average spending per enrollee was $13,073?
$1.425 million spent. Up 10.3% from 2011. And 109,000 Medicaid enrollees.
Here is NC:
Spending: $13.872 million. Up 22.8% from 2011. And 1.471 million recipients.
Here is a crazy one..Nevada:
In 2012, Nevada had 301,000 Medicaid enrollees. A little under 3x Alaska. Nevada spent $1.692 million on Medicaid (only 200,000-ish over Alaska), but Nevada’s average spending per enrollee was $5,621 (less than half of Alaska and the third lowest amount spent per enrollee). Where did all Nevada’s Medicaid money go?? Rats and ants eating away the pie?
North Dakota has the very least number of Medicaid enrollees in 2012…66,000. Wyoming is a close second with only 67,000 Medicaid enrollees in 2012.
North Dakota was the 4th highest state as to spending per enrollee with an average of $10,969/enrollee.
Wyoming was the 16th highest state as to spending per enrollee with an average of $8537/enrollee.
Guess which state had the highest total spending on Medicaid in 2012?
Drum roll…..
California. (Shocker!). California spent $47.726 million on Medicaid, up 4.2% from 2011. California also had the highest number of enrollees on 2012 with 2.624 million enrollees (over a million more than NC). California also spent the 5th lowest on average per enrollee, $6,065.
Having a high number of enrollees did not always have a direct correlation with spending the least, on average, per enrollee. Oregon only had 569,000 Medicaid enrollees in 2012 and spent the 4th lowest amount, on average, per enrollee, $6,007.
New York is the closest state to spending and number of recipients to California, but New York succeeded in a much higher average spending per enrollee than California.
New York spent $39.257 million total on Medicaid (less than $8 million difference from California) in 2012. New York had 5.004 million enrollees (2.8 million Medicaid enrollees less than California) and spent, on average, $7845/enrollee (absolute, dead-on-middle as compared to all states).
Georgia is, perhaps, the most comparable to North Carolina in terms of number of Medicaid enrollees in 2012. NC = 1.471 million enrollees in 2012. GA = 1.529 enrollees in 2012.
NC spent $13.872 million, while Georgia spent $8.497 million in 2012. So, Georgia had MORE Medicaid enrollees and spent over $5 million less……
Is that good or bad? Is Georgia more efficient? Did Georgia spend less in administration costs?
Actually (albeit there may be other factors), Georgia spent significantly less, on average, on each Medicaid enrollee.
Georgia spent 2nd lowest, on average, per Medicaid enrollee. Only Illinois surpassed Georgia in lowest spending, on average, per enrollee. Georgia spent, on average, $5,229 per enrollee.
NC spent $9430, on average, per enrollee. (Which, BTW, is more than enough for my “A Modest Proposal”).
That is a huge difference!
One other number jumped out at me when I reviewed Modern Healthcare‘s article, “Medicaid Budgets By State.” Remember I told you that NC spent $13.872 million on Medicaid in 2012…and that the amount spent was a 22.8% increase from 2011?
22.8% is a high percentage to increase in only one year!
I looked at the increases/decreases of the states. North Carolina gets the award for the highest percentage growth in spending on Medicaid in the entire nation. NC was the only state whose percentage “increase of Medicaid spending” percentage from 2011 to 2012 was in the 20s.
NC is #1 in the nation for percentage increase as to total Medicaid spending!!!! (Proud?)
The next state with the highest increase in spending on Medicaid is Mississippi with a 17.4% increase in spending from 2011. Next in line is Alabama with a 14.7% increase in Medicaid spending.
Guess which states decreased its Medicaid spending the most from 2011 to 2012?
Drum roll…
Oregon (decrease of 23.2% spending) and Illinois (decrease of 15% spending). Is it coincidental that Illinois spent the absolute least, on average, per Medicaid recipient and that Oregon spent the 4th lowest, on average, per Medicaid recipient?
Regardless the size of the pie, the number of guests, and the number of rats and ants, we need to make sure that the guests (Medicaid recipients) are benefitting most from the pie.
Sometimes a decrease in spending equals a decrease in services to Medicaid recipients…sometimes not…I guess it depends on the number of rats and ants.
