SNAP Endorses Governor’s Proposal for Paying for Tobacco Borrowing
Debt service on the state’s borrowing against future proceeds from the national master tobacco settlement agreement should be paid using state sales and use tax revenue, SNAP has declared in a new position statement.
Last year the state borrowed $1.5 billion against future proceeds from the tobacco settlement. Some tobacco settlement money is used to help hospitals with the cost of uncompensated care they provide via tobacco uncompensated care payments and tobacco extraordinary expense payments made to hospitals that meet specific criteria: how much uncompensated care they provide, the proportion of their patients insured by Medicaid, and the proportion of low-income seniors they serve. All Pennsylvania safety-net hospitals qualify for these payments.
Because the state’s borrowing against future tobacco settlement proceeds was never intended to result in a reduction of these payments in the future, SNAP has issued a position statement endorsing the Wolf administration’s suggestion, in its proposed FY 2020 budget, to pay debt service on its tobacco borrowing with sales and use tax revenue.
An early November bulletin from CMS, however, clarifies that this approach is still permissible, which is good news for Pennsylvania safety-net hospitals and SNAP members hoping to benefit from the state’s hospital assessment.
Community HealthChoices is a new state program of managed long-term services and supports for Pennsylvanians over the age of 55 who are eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid.
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf has vetoed a bill that included a requirement that certain Medicaid recipients either work or search for work.
Including those who provide services to the more than 2.8 million Pennsylvanians enrolled in the state’s Medicaid program.
Among the possibilities state lawmakers are discussing: tighter rules for participation, greater efficiency, work and work search requirements for able-bodied Medicaid recipients, charging premiums for high-income families for which Medicaid provides coverage for their profoundly disabled children, and a pilot program to test whether a recipient care management program might eliminate medical errors, improve recipient health, and reduce health care costs.
Included in this edition are articles about:
Pennsylvania’s Medicaid program is moving toward greater use of value-based purchasing in its Medicaid behavioral health programs.