Medicaid expansion has been on the table for the House Finance Committee this week and lawmakers review the Governor’s proposal.
Legislators have insisted on Medicaid reform before expansion, with just 11 days left in the session.
Health Commissioner Valerie Davidson…
Davidson: “We are interested in reforming Medicaid not just for the expansion population, but for everybody, because we don’t have a choice. The way that we are doing it right now, as we have said repeatedly, is not sustainable. So we have to do things differently.”
Legislators have been focusing heavily on the current issues with Medicaid payments.
The State filed an administrative complaint last year against the vendor hired to handle Medicaid payments. One of the concerns raised has been with Alaska’s system for paying Medicaid providers.One of the issues was that providers were allegedly being paid for services they didn’t provide.
The state is working with the vendor and officials say they expect the problems to be fixed this month.