Johan Sheridan
ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — New York could lower Medicaid costs by over $3 billion, according to 11 proposals by Bill Hammond, the director of health policy at the Empire Center for Public Policy.
The nonprofit group submitted the proposals to a Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Medicaid Redesign Team at the Albany Capital Center on Friday. Cuomo appointed the Redesign Team on February 4 to save $2.5 billion by April 1, making up for a massive shortfall in the state budget.
Hammond outlines seven ideas that come with price tags:
- Reduce overuse of personal assistance: $1.4B
- Improve eligibility screening: $500M
- Reform the Indigent Care Pool: up to $370M
- Cap funding for minimum wage costs: $300M
- Rescind the November 2018 rate increase: $278M
- Limit subsidies for distressed hospitals: $143M
- Eliminate subsidized malpractice coverage: $127M
And four that are less precise:
- Strengthen the global cap
- Tighten long-term care fiscal review
- Reject new taxes
- Reject cost shift to local government
Hammond’s proposals do not affect current beneficiaries or local governments.
The Empire Center is an independent, non-profit think tank and government watchdog group that focuses on reining in spending to improve the state.
© 2020 Nexstar Broadcasting
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