Budget blasts Medicaid plan

by Greg Griggs, NC Academy of Family Physicians, published in News and Observer, June 5, 2014.

For 16 months, we have worked diligently with the governor, the General Assembly and the Department of Health and Human Services to develop a well-reasoned plan to reform our state’s Medicaid system – a plan that works for patients, health care providers and our state’s taxpayers.

Yet the Senate’s budget ignores these months of hard work and arbitrarily moves in a different direction. Despite the input from physicians and hospitals and the consensus of the legislatively mandated Medicaid Reform Advisory Group, the Senate has chosen to move toward an outdated, capitated managed care model.

We all worked hard to develop a patient-centered plan aimed at improving quality while lowering costs. The policy changes and financial cuts proposed in the Senate budget could destabilize our health care system and harm our most fragile residents – the elderly, blind and disabled.

We think there’s a better way; a way developed through months of consensus-building culminating in a plan to reform Medicaid endorsed by the governor, health care professionals and key legislative leaders.

We hope the final state budget reflects this common-sense approach to Medicaid reform – a plan that builds on what’s working, improves those things that are not and is healthy for all.

GREGORY K. GRIGGS, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, N.C. ACADEMY OF FAMILY PHYSICIANS, RALEIGH

http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/06/05/3914209/gregory-k-griggs-budget-blasts.html?sp=/99/108/