{"id":11369,"date":"2012-09-27T14:32:37","date_gmt":"2012-09-27T20:32:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/?p=11369"},"modified":"2012-09-27T14:32:37","modified_gmt":"2012-09-27T20:32:37","slug":"idahos-medicaid-expansion-workgroup-explores-three-options","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/09\/27\/idahos-medicaid-expansion-workgroup-explores-three-options\/","title":{"rendered":"Idaho&#8217;s Medicaid Expansion Workgroup Explores Three Options"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_9662\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 300px;\"><a class=\"fancybox\" title=\"The governor's panel on Medicaid expansion met for the first time back in August.  \" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2012\/08\/8-6meetimg-e1344295391252.jpg\" rel=\"\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-9662\" title=\"Medicaid Work Group\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2012\/08\/8-6meetimg-300x197.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"197\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Emilie Ritter Saunders \/ StateImpact<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">The governor&#39;s panel on Medicaid expansion met for the first time back in August.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Between 97,000 and 111,000 additional Idahoans would be eligible for <a title=\"An Essential Guide to Idaho\u2019s Medicaid Program\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/topic\/medicaid\/\" target=\"_blank\">Medicaid<\/a> if the state chooses to expand eligibility.\u00a0 But where would those people come from?\u00a0 Close to half would migrate from four other state programs already in place to help low-income residents with medical needs.<\/p>\n<p>Governor C.L. &#8220;Butch&#8221; Otter must decide if Idaho will expand its Medicaid program under the federal Affordable Care Act.\u00a0 A workgroup he assembled has been weighing the state&#8217;s options, and met for a second time Thursday in Boise.<\/p>\n<p>If the state expands eligibility, about 35,000 people would migrate to Medicaid from community health centers.\u00a0 Another 6,000 would come from Idaho&#8217;s <a title=\"Idaho Could Save Money By Expanding Medicaid\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/07\/13\/idaho-could-save-money-by-expanding-medicaid\/\" target=\"_blank\">Catastrophic Health Program<\/a>. <!--more--><\/p>\n<div class=\"related-content alignleft\"><h4 class=\"related-header\">Related<\/h4><div class=\"links\"><h5>Posts<\/h5><ul><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/08\/06\/medicaid-expansion-could-add-100000-to-idaho-rolls\/\">Medicaid Expansion Could Add 100,000 To Idaho\u00a0Rolls<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/08\/07\/supporters-of-idaho-medicaid-expansion-speak-out-but-costs-remain-a-big-question\/\">Supporters Of Idaho Medicaid Expansion Speak Out, But Costs Remain A Big Question<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/09\/12\/fewer-workers-covered-by-longstanding-health-insurance-plans-as-law-takes-effect\/\">Fewer Workers Covered By Longstanding Health Insurance Plans As Law Takes Effect<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/09\/19\/should-idaho-expand-its-medicaid-program-some-answers-could-lie-here\/\">Should Idaho Expand Its Medicaid Program? Some Answers Could Lie\u00a0Here<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div><div class=\"topics\"><h5>Topics<\/h5><p class=\"topic\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2011\/11\/EmptyFridge_MelYates_Getty1-60x60.jpg\" height=\"60\" width=\"60\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/topic\/poverty\/\">Measuring Idaho\u2019s Poverty Rate<\/a><\/p><p class=\"topic\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/files\/2011\/12\/12-9-Medicaid-60x60.jpg\" height=\"60\" width=\"60\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/topic\/medicaid\/\">An Essential Guide to Idaho\u2019s Medicaid Program<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<p>Laura Summers is with Leavitt Partners which <a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/435444-idaho-medicaid-leavitt-report.html\" target=\"_blank\">conducted a $100,000 study<\/a> for the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare on Medicaid expansion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIdaho\u2019s population, newly eligible population, is going to consist of a both a younger, relatively healthy population,&#8221; Summers explains.\u00a0 &#8220;A lot of those mothers who are receiving treatment at community health centers with less serious chronic [conditions] as well as an older population with more serious chronic conditions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Another 4,300 would come from Idaho\u2019s Adult Mental Health Services.\u00a0 And 2,000 would switch over from the Corrections Department as they are released from prison.<\/p>\n<p>The rest of the newly-eligible would come from other programs or among the ranks of the uninsured.\u00a0 The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/435444-idaho-medicaid-leavitt-report.html\" target=\"_blank\">Leavitt report<\/a> says 64 percent of those newly-eligible for Medicaid would have jobs, but would not have health insurance.<\/p>\n<p>The workgroup also explored what it considers to be <a href=\"http:\/\/healthandwelfare.idaho.gov\/AboutUs\/Newsroom\/tabid\/130\/ctl\/ArticleView\/mid\/3061\/articleId\/1672\/Idaho-Medicaid-Expansion-Workgroup-Meets-September-27th.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">Idaho&#8217;s three options<\/a> surrounding Medicaid and the federal health care law.\u00a0 The first is to do nothing &#8212; no expansion.\u00a0 The second is to not expand Medicaid, but to overhaul Idaho&#8217;s existing medical indigency program, known as the <a title=\"Idaho Could Save Money By Expanding Medicaid\" href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/07\/13\/idaho-could-save-money-by-expanding-medicaid\/\" target=\"_blank\">Catastrophic Health Care Fund<\/a> (or CAT fund).<\/p>\n<p>Dan Chadwick is the head of the Idaho Association of Counties.\u00a0 He says the CAT system is too complicated to re-design. He\u2019d rather scrap the whole thing and start over.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMany of the providers and the counties really don&#8217;t like this system,&#8221; Chadwick said.\u00a0 &#8220;I think we&#8217;d all be happy to see it go away, it\u2019s created conflict over the years, it&#8217;s a difficult system to administer, and we don&#8217;t know even where to start in terms of capturing the administrative costs for this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The third option\u00a0the workgroup sees is to recommend an expansion of the Medicaid program.<\/p>\n<p>The costs of each option are still being worked out by the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.milliman.com\/expertise\/healthcare\/\" target=\"_blank\">Seattle-based consulting firm Milliman<\/a>.\u00a0 That firm plans to give its report to the working group at its next meeting scheduled for October 23.\u00a0 Once those numbers come out, the working group will pick an option and recommend it to Gov. Otter, who must make a final decision by mid-November.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Between 97,000 and 111,000 additional Idahoans would be eligible for Medicaid if the state chooses to expand eligibility.\u00a0 But where would those people come from?\u00a0 Close to half would migrate from four other state programs already in place to help low-income residents with medical needs. Governor C.L. &#8220;Butch&#8221; Otter must decide if Idaho will expand [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":9662,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[27,64,119,65],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11369"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11369"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11389,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11369\/revisions\/11389"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}