Universal Access for Children. Fully funds the federal share of the expansion of Child Health Plus, which was blocked by the Bush Administration. This will ensure access to health care for all the 400,000 children in New York State who currently lack insurance. This represents an additional investment of $19 million, bringing total spending to $37 million in 2008-09. The expansion will be partially funded through an increase in family contribution levels for the program based upon income level.
Doctors Across New York. Provides a new tuition loan repayment program to encourage primary care and specialist physicians either to establish or to join practices and providers in rural and inner-city medically underserved areas.
Nursing Scholarships. An existing scholarship program to assist nurses in their pursuit of higher education will be expanded in the SUNY budget, and a new program will be established in the CUNY budget.
Ambulatory and Primary Care. Offers improved access to primary care and preventive medicine by redirecting $84 million through the updating of reimbursement methodologies for hospital inpatient care.
Public Health Investments. Provides $15 million for new investments in public health and aging programs, including anti-smoking, pregnancy and obesity prevention, services for the frail and elderly, and others.
Fighting Medicaid Fraud. Expands the State’s ability to combat waste, fraud and abuse through $5 million of additional funding for the Office of Medicaid Inspector General. This funding will be used to add 75 new staff, including 55 auditors and investigators, upgrade the Office’s data mining technology, and to expand its Card Swipe Program. These new investments are expected to increase fraud collections by $160 million compared to the levels initially projected in the 2007-08 Enacted Budget.
Savings
Overall Cost Containment. Reduces overall costs by $980 million, including decreases in pharmacy reimbursement, significant increases in Medicaid audit savings, modifications in acute and long-term care reimbursement methodologies, a partial elimination of inflationary increases for hospitals, nursing homes and home care providers, increased assessment on insurers, reductions in planned premium increases for managed care, managed long-term care and Family Health Plus, better managing high cost users and eliminating the inflationary increase for the Early Intervention Program. This year, Medicaid spending is projected to be $46.3 billion, an increase of 2.7 percent.
Preferred Drug List. Saves $18 million by expanding the State’s Preferred Drug List (PDL) to cover additional drugs, including anti-depressants. This will allow the Department of Health to control the inappropriate utilization of these drugs. This proposal would still maintain the provision that the prescribing physician’s decision prevails in all instances. Additional savings of $18 million will be achieved by expanding the Clinical Drug Review Program.
Nursing Home Reimbursement. Saves $85 million by not allocating nursing home rebasing funds from the prior year because a plan for expending them has not been approved by the Federal government. However, nursing homes will still receive $90 million in 2008-09.