House and Senate Democratic leaders announced a major legislative proposal this week to increase Medicaid reimbursement rates for healthcare providers.

An increase is long overdue as many areas of care covered by Medicaid are currently reimbursed at the same rates they were in 2007.  A recent Medicaid Rate Study found that Connecticut lags well behind peer states when paying providers under the state’s Medicaid program.

Amidst the uncertainty of federal funding under the Trump administration, this plan is now especially critical to Connecticut’s economy, patients, physicians and all healthcare providers, as well as nonprofits alike.

Medicaid is a public health insurance program for individuals and families with limited incomes, including children, pregnant women, seniors, and people with disabilities. Each state runs its own Medicaid program in partnership with the federal government, so eligibility and benefits can differ by state.

Our proposal is a multi-year plan based on the Medicaid Rate Study, and includes:

• Increasing reimbursement rates, up to current federal rate levels under Medicare, for all providers. Many providers are still reimbursed using the 2007 fee schedule such as dental, school-based health centers, family planning, psychology and other services.
• Bringing all providers up to at least a 75-80% reimbursement benchmark and filling in coverage gaps, such as raising reimbursements for certain provider groups excluded from the study, including home and behavioral health, dental, autism, naturopathy and others.
• Increasing formula grants under Medicaid to providers not currently covered in the study, including community-based Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), substance abuse treatment, hospice and home healthcare.

The proposal also envisions a systemic approach to future rate increases to prevent another 18-year stagnation of Medicaid reimbursements.

We understand what's going on nationally, but we can't stop doing our jobs for the people of Connecticut and that starts with putting forward good public policy. Increasing Medicaid reimbursement rates is a worthy investment that benefits all of Connecticut.

You can read more about the importance of raising Medicaid reimbursement rates in this CT News Junkie article.