Louisiana Medicaid program spending $400M under projections
BATON ROUGE — Louisiana's Medicaid program will spend about $400 million less than expected in the nearly ended budget year, largely because tens of thousands of people were booted from Medicaid rolls amid bolstered computer checks of eligibility.
The latest Medicaid forecast for the budget year that ends June 30 showed the program was expected to spend about $12 billion on the government-financed insurance coverage this year, rather than the $12.4 billion allocated for health services.
Nearly all the money Louisiana won't spend is federal financing that simply won't be drawn down from Washington, said the Louisiana Department of Health's chief financial officer Cindy Rives. The small general state tax dollar savings already was taken by lawmakers and spent elsewhere in the just-ended legislative session.
The less-than-expected spending mainly stems from more frequent checks of whether people enrolled in Medicaid earn too much to qualify for the coverage, Rives said.
Read more: https://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/news/local/louisiana/2019/06/13/louisiana-medicaid-program-spending-400-m-under-projections/1442246001/