Many questions still unanswered, but more details expected this week
As we reported previously, the Department of Health Services held hearings last Wednesday and Friday in Milwaukee and Madison on their proposals for cutting more than $500 million from Medicaid and BadgerCare. We appreciate that DHS held two hearings, although their proposals are still sketchy in many areas and leave so many unanswered questions that it has been impossible for many participants in the programs to know how they will be affected. (See WCCF’s 3-page list of key questions.)
Thus far, the chairs of the Senate and Assembly health committees haven’t agreed to hold any public hearings on the controversial proposals, but some Democrats are beginning to make plans for their own meetings to inform and involve the public. The first of those hearings will be hosted in La Crosse this Friday, October 28, by Senator Jennifer Shilling. It will be from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. and will be held in Room 337 in the Cartwright Center at UW La Crosse (1725 State Street).
Additional hearings are being considered in a number of other communities, including Eau Claire, Green Bay, Oshkosh and Wausau. We’ll follow up with information on those hearings or other public forums as they are scheduled. In the meantime, DHS has yet to formally submit to the Joint Finance Committee (JFC) the proposed policy changes that conflict with current state law. However, the DHS plans are likely to be submitted to JFC members later today or tomorrow, and the committee will then have up to 14 days to decide whether it wants to hold a meeting to review the proposals that are inconsistent with current state statutes and rules.
For a summary of the department’s 39 different cost-cutting proposals, see WCCF’s 6-page synopsis. The Save BadgerCare Coalition has prepared a one-page summary that focuses specifically on the portions of the DHS proposals that affect BadgerCare. Watch this new section of the WCCF website for additional analysis and updates as DHS releases more detailed information about the substance of their proposals.
After JFC completes its review of the proposals, DHS will need to seek waivers from the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for any changes that conflict with federal statutes and regulations, and that includes most of the changes relating to BadgerCare. Many of the other changes require federal approval of Medicaid “plan amendments,” which are usually easier to get okayed than waivers. Although state officials want to get the federal waivers by the end of the year, that is now extremely unlikely — in part because of substantive issues, but especially because the waiver process typically takes many months and DHS has yet to formally submit its proposals to HHS.
Stay tuned for further updates on both the substance of the DHS proposals and the review process.
Jon Peacock
