“Medicaid financing scheme endangers federal-state partnership,” by Red Jahncke, The Hill

 

Quote:

“The Medicaid program was established as a federal-state partnership, but it has become a partnership in name only as the result of a complicated maneuver in which states impose taxes on health care providers to extract tens of billions of dollars yearly from the U.S. Treasury via an arcane Medicaid financing maneuver. The scheme renders Medicaid almost entirely a federally financed — or over-financed — program. Almost every state employs this tax maneuver to trigger the annual release of matching funds over and above the money the federal government sends as its share of reimbursements to hospitals for medical services they provide to Medicaid patients. In a 2014 report, the General [sic]Accountability Office criticized these so-called provider taxes, which fall most heavily upon hospitals.”

 

LTC Comment (from Stephen A. Moses, President, Center for Long-Term Care Reform):

Individuals game Medicaid to qualify for long-term care without spending down their wealth. State governments game Medicaid to maximize federal funding without having to tax their citizens. It’s Medicaid planning at the micro and the macro level.