(The Center Square) – Legislators in North Carolina have been called back into session by Gov. Josh Stein to address Medicaid funding.
The first-term Democratic leader exercised the gubernatorial authority not used in seven years with the two-year state budget still unfinished and Republican majority chambers at odds with their rebase bills. Medicaid, as confirmed by Stein’s administration, is funded through April although the Department of Health and Human Services – led by Stein appointee Dev Sangvai – cut rates Oct. 1.
The session is scheduled Nov. 17.
“The General Assembly is using people’s health and well-being as bargaining chips in an unrelated budget dispute, and it’s shameful,” Stein said. “The Legislature must come back to Raleigh and do its job so that the 3 million North Carolinians who rely on Medicaid can get the care they need.”
On Oct. 22, the House of Representatives sent Medicaid Rebase Funding (House Bill 491) and the Healthcare Investment Act (Senate Bill 405) to the Senate. Sen. Bill Rabon, R-Brunswick, chairman of the upper chamber’s Rules Committee, said the existing adjournment resolution to this year’s sessions prevented each along with two others sent from being considered.
Additional Medicaid Funds and Requirements (Senate Bill 403, a companion House Bill 491) remains idled since Sept. 25 in the Senate Rules Committee.
All three of the bills, Caldwell County Republican Speaker Destin Hall says, have been approved by the Stein administration as a way to drop the rate cuts.
“The House has done its job to fund Medicaid with clean bills and is prepared to do more if needed,” Hall said in a release after Stein’s order to come back to Raleigh. “We need to resolve this matter quickly to protect patients, support providers and ensure the long-term stability of North Carolina’s Medicaid program.
“Until recently, the General Assembly has worked with the executive branch to provide funding to Medicaid, while also monitoring the program’s integrity. The administration should have continued that practice.”
Friday marked Day 130 late on the state budget. Mini budget measures have been passed, and the state continues to otherwise operate on last year’s spending levels as mandated by a 2016 law.
Medicaid rebase means an adjustment to fiscal support because of costs and or volume of people enrolled.
Medicaid Rebase Funding appropriates $190 million in nonrecurring funds for the Medicaid rebase and added $190 million for the rebase for a total recurring appropriation of $690 million.
In the Healthcare Investment Act, there is $49.2 million recurring and $34.4 million nonrecurring funding to support Medicaid managed care. Another $1 million goes to the state auditor’s office for “comprehensive review of county-level Medicaid eligibility redeterminations” and Department of Social Services performance.
Additional Medicaid Funds and Requirements eliminates vacant positions at the Health Department; has a 5% flexible vacant position cut across other gubernatorial state agencies; ends Medicaid coverage of GLP-1 drugs for weight-loss only, while continuing coverage for federally required medical diagnoses; and directs the state auditor to review SNAP and Medicaid redetermination processes at the state and county levels to clear backlogs.
It also requires the Health Department to work with the auditor’s office to set standards for timeliness and accuracy in Medicaid redeterminations, with enforcement tools to ensure county compliance; and it expands Rylan’s Law to include Medicaid redeterminations.
