Abandoning Accountability in Medicaid

Robert Moffit / July 08, 2009

Yesterday’s New York Times editorial, “Financing Health Care Reform,” outlines the need to “make the hard choices” including “cutting and reallocating hundreds of billions of dollars from projected spending on Medicare and Medicaid…” However, judging by last week’s action by the Obama Administration to rescind three Medicaid regulations, the Times’ admonition is likely to fall upon deaf ears.

Last week, the Department of Health and Human Services announced it would rescind three regulations that were designed to place needed fiscal and programmatic accountability in Medicaid. As Medicaid now spends more than $350 billion annually, the savings from these regulations were modest. (more…)