Tagged: Medicaid

The Speaker of the Kentucky House says it’s a no-brainer for Kentucky to expand its Medicaid program under the Affordable Care Act.

Under the health care law, states can expanded their Medicaid rolls to 138 percent of the poverty line, with the federal government picking up the tab for three years. 

Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear has yet to decide whether Kentucky will expand, saying he will calculate costs after 2017, when the feds pay only 90 percent of the expansion.

But Democratic House Speaker Greg Stumbo says he's encouraging Beshear to commit to Medicaid expansion now.

“I think it would be a penny wise and a pound foolish not to find the money,” Stumbo says.

Weeks after their announced departure from Kentucky’s Medicaid managed care system, operator Kentucky Spirit and the state are still locked in a legal battle.

Both sides have sued each other, blaming the other for the situation. Kentucky Spirit announced their departure, scheduled for the middle of 2013, due to massive losses in the system.

In an interim committee meeting Tuesday, Kentucky lawmakers asked for an update on what the state hoped to recoup financially because of Kentucky Spirit’s decision.

A new policy by a statewide Medicaid operator has independent pharmacists up in arms again. Earlier this year, pharmacists were the first group to alert lawmakers to problems with the managed care system. But they failed to get a bill protecting their co-pays signed into law.