With the stroke of a pen, President Barack Obama has just put added pressure on the second-biggest category of New York’s state operating funds budget—Medicaid. Obama’s recent executive order on immigration could drive up New York’s Medicaid costs by $1.1 billion to $2 billion, state Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos warned in a letter yesterday to the state’s U.S. senators. Read More
President Obama’s immigration overhaul could be expensive for New York — putting the state on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars in added health-care costs. Read More
Today’s Albany Times Union gives front-page play to a story that has picked up surprisingly little sustained media attention since it was first reported two years ago: since 1990, New York State has ripped off the federal government for billions of dollars in overcharges of Medicaid reimbursements for the developmentally disabled — and the feds want their bucks back. Read More
Federal Medicaid reimbursements to New York State could be cut by $1 billion a year to make up for more than two decades of excessive claims that one congressman compared to “fraud.” Read More
New York is cited as “something of a case study in all that is wrong with Medicaid,” but also as a state “in the vaguard” of Medicaid reform, in a new National Affairs article by Paul Howard, director of Manhattan Institute’s Center for Medical Progress. Read More
The Empire Center hosted a frank discussion of consumer-driven health care solutions and discussed what the other option in the health care debate could mean to New York. Read More
Some of the nation's top health policy experts gathered to share ideas on how to curb health care expenses, improve health care services and expand access to health insurance in New York State. Featured topics included innovative Medicaid reforms in Florida and Kentucky, the Massachusetts health insurance reform plan, the pitfalls of a Canada-style universal health plan, and the potential benefits of expanding consumer health care choices. Read More
New York has the nation's largest Medicaid program, serving over 5 million enrollees at a cost of $54 billion annually. But a small percentage of Medicaid patients, with chronic medical and behavioral health diseases account for a disproportionate share of the program's total spending. "Taking Ownership: The Patient's role in Medicaid" profiles some reforms largely overlooked in the state's redesign, healthcare experts from around the state participated in a panel discussion hosted by the Empire Center. Read More