{"id":5406,"date":"2012-03-05T14:26:32","date_gmt":"2012-03-05T21:26:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/?p=5406"},"modified":"2012-03-05T14:26:32","modified_gmt":"2012-03-05T21:26:32","slug":"plan-to-reverse-key-medicaid-cuts-gets-a-hearing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/03\/05\/plan-to-reverse-key-medicaid-cuts-gets-a-hearing\/","title":{"rendered":"Plan To Reverse Key Medicaid Cuts Gets A Hearing"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Idaho Legislature<\/p>

Rep. Janice McGeachin (R-Idaho Falls) chairs the House Health and Welfare Committee.<\/p><\/div>\n

A ranking House Republican is sponsoring a bill to reverse key cuts in Medicaid services.\u00a0 Rep. Janice McGeachin (R-Idaho Falls) chairs the House Health and Welfare Committee.\u00a0 That committee oversaw the state’s process of reining in Medicaid services as the state’s economy suffered the effects of the downturn.\u00a0 Rep. McGeachin now says lawmakers made one cut based on an inaccurate understanding of how certain services were provided, and what they entailed.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur Medicaid program is quite intricate,” she said, “and it\u2019s really impossible for us on the committee to understand all of those codes.\u201d<\/p>\n

McGeachin’s bill<\/a> would allow adult Medicaid recipients to again receive skill development services related to both developmental disabilities and mental health problems, as long as those services are not duplicative.\u00a0 That would reverse a cut that forced Medicaid recipients with dual diagnoses to choose which kind of skill development services to receive.<\/p>\n

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[legislator leg_id=IDL000076 align=left]<\/p>\n

“There are some people who have a mental illness and a developmental disability, and we really thought those people were receiving the same services twice,” McGeachin said.\u00a0 “But that\u2019s not what was really happening out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

StateImpact<\/em> has documented the effect of this particular service cut<\/a> in one young woman’s life.<\/p>\n

McGeachin’s bill<\/a> also seeks to restore preventative dental care for adults with disabilities who are eligible for an institutional level of care through Medicaid.\u00a0 The House Health and Welfare Committee is scheduled to hear the proposal tomorrow<\/a>.\u00a0 The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee takes up the Medicaid budget<\/del> this Friday.<\/p>\n

Rep. McGeachin said she has been working closely with Medicaid service providers and fellow legislators to determine which cuts to attempt to reverse.\u00a0 \u201cWe really focused on the most egregious changes that people felt were possibly creating a greater cost burden somewhere else,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Reversing the two cuts would cost about $8 million in total spending, about $2 million of which would come from the state, McGeachin says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A ranking House Republican is sponsoring a bill to reverse key cuts in Medicaid services.\u00a0 Rep. Janice McGeachin (R-Idaho Falls) chairs the House Health and Welfare Committee.\u00a0 That committee oversaw the state’s process of reining in Medicaid services as the state’s economy suffered the effects of the downturn.\u00a0 Rep. McGeachin now says lawmakers made one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":5284,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[121],"tags":[235,56,34,65,46],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5406"}],"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\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}