Senator Norma Champion said today she would support a special legislative session for Medicaid if lawmakers can agree on a comprehensive bill that includes both fraud prevention and a revival of the MAWD program for the working disabled.
"If we don't have to get into a lengthy debate to waste taxpayers money, I think we should do it," Champion told me today.
Champion basically put the burden on the House leadership. "The Senate passed a fraud bill. I think if we can come up with something fast that they can agree on, it might be a good idea," Champion said.
"The Governor won't call it unless he feels it will be done very efficiently. We don't want to waste time up there, but it's his decision," Champion added.
Rep. Bob Dixon put out a press release earlier this week supporting the Governor's call for a special session. "I was an early advocate for restoring effective and sustainable Ticket to Work Program so the working disabled may receive help with the cost of their medical care. We should continue reasonable efforts to eliminate Medicaid fraud," said Dixon in his statement.
The devil is in the details. Even Dixon admits his statement was specifically crafted language. He says the deal will come down to the details in the fraud portion of the bill.
Dixon called the provider fraud bill, which Champion voted for, "Draconian." He said the bill that passed the Senate could end up hurting access to healthcare by running providers out of business.
"The problem with the Senate bill is, you cannot say a mistake in paperwork is always fraud, and then have a provider lose their license or throw them in jail for that," Dixon told me. "There's cases I'm sure where that's appropriate, but I think it opens up litigation, and is the undoing of our reform bill on junk lawsuits."
"I do not support putting a doctor or a nurse in jail if they make a mistake on a Medicaid form," Dixon added.
Rep. Mark Wright agrees that the Senate version of the fraud bill is too tough on providers. "The initial version is so extreme, so punitive toward providers, a lot of health care providers were upset with it," Wright said. Wright said the Senate wasn't willing to compromise on its version.
"Some of the penalties on providers were tougher than those we have against sex offenders and predators," Wright said. "Obviously the Governor supports the Senate version, I just don't think that version will pass."
While Rep. Dixon wouldn't predict the chances of an agreement on the fraud portion to trigger a session, Rep. Wright said the "Governor has now put himself in a box."
"I think the special session is going to have to happen now. People won't let him get away with it. He's getting a lot of heat to do it, and now with what he said, I don't see how he gets out of it," Wright said.
2 comments:
It all started with a simple request to hold a special session to approve the diabled workers program most all agreed shouldn't have ever been repealed. However the Governor will only call the speical session if the General Assembly agrees to pass an unrelated bill he supports that is designed to cut down on medicaid provdier fraud. Champion was against the special session when the Governor was against it but now that he might be for it (if the House Republicans can agree with the Senate Republicans on the meidicaid fraud bill) then she also might be for it. However since Dixon considers Champion's position on the Medicaid Fraud bill (which is, of course, also the position of the Senate Republican leadership) to be draconian as of now it doesn't look like House and Senate Republicans are going to agree. So since the Governor is not going to get his way on the Medicaid fraud bill there will be no special session on the disabled workers bill that this was all about originally. The Republican Governor won't yeild, the Republican Senate won't yeild and the Republican House won't yield. All prove how powerful they are. Meanwhile diabled workers are the pawns that must do without the program all allegedly agree should'nt have been repealed in the first place.
Somebody needs to grow up and do the right thing!!!!!!
It's not the job of government to provide health care or medical coverage. It's simply not in the Constitution, no matter how you interpret it.
That may sound cold, but it's true.
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