Brown administration moves forward with massive Medi-Cal cuts

[KamaAina]

http://www.cdcan.info/node/395

Saying that the State was committed to preserving and maintaining access to important Medi-Cal services while also achieving needed savings to close an enormous budget shortfall, the Brown Administration announced late this afternoon that it received approval from the federal government to go forward on implementation of over $623 million in Medi-Cal provider rate reductions impacting most - but not all - Medi-Cal providers. The news comes as the State faces yet another year of an on-going and unresolved budget shortfall that could mean another round of spending cuts and other reductions in 2012....

It was not clear when the reductions would begin to take effect - though the budget related bill that authorized the cuts,. AB 97, required that the reductions would go into effect June 1, 2011, or retroactively back to that date when federal approval is obtained (or whatever date the federal government approves). A retroactive reduction, depending on how it is applied, could have a devastating impact on many Medi-Cal providers already reeling from other cuts and reductions.
A pdf copy of the budget related bill can be viewed or downloaded at: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/11-12/bill/asm/ab_0051-0100/ab_97_bill_20110324_chaptered.pdf

Since the Brown Administration assumed in March and again in June that the federal government would eventually approve the State's new request to cut Medi-Cal provider rates, today's action - beyond its impact on people in the Medi-Cal program and Medi-Cal providers - simply helps the State's budget hole from growing even larger.

So would more revenue. But he refused to spend any political capital at all to try to raise some. And this is the result. :grr: