(The Center Square) – One of the cost-saving measures Gov. J.B. Pritzker implemented to shore up the Illinois taxpayer liability for non-citizen health care is on hold.
The state approved spending $550 million on non-citizen health care subsidies for the fiscal year that started July 1. Part of that were rules the Pritzker administration implemented to have copays paid by non-citizens for things like hospital stays and doctors visits. The policy had co-pays of $100 for emergency room visits and $250 for inpatient hospitalizations.
During a Joint Committee on Administrative Rules hearing Tuesday, Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services staff attorney Omar Shaker said copays for hospital visits are on hold to refine the rules to capture more federal tax dollars.
“And I believe that there is some type of issue or conflict within our general programming that would potentially, if left untouched, could jeopardize our matching funds,” Shaker said. “We decided to suspend it and instruct the providers that if there were any copays that were taken, then they need to repay them because HFS would be paying the full amount.”
Shaker went further into the minutia of the copay dilemma.
“There is a federal program that does offer some matching, however the rule that we have deals with those circumstances where an individual receives attention at an emergency room but is not covered under that federal program, then those circumstances, the copay would be applied,” Shaker said. “They only deal with hospital visits. Visits to providers and dentists and pharmacists are still covered entirely by the program.”
Legislators requested more information on how much taxpayer savings the copays would produce and a timeline for when the copays would be implemented.
“I don’t have the exact numbers but that is definitely something I can advise the committee,” Shaker said.
JCAR meets again next month.
