Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

Skeptics scoffing at claims of bipartisanship.

The new Medicaid advisory commission has a mammoth task: Figuring out how to apply the $10 billion in cuts while expanding coverage to more beneficiaries.

Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt established the Medicaid advisory commission to stabilize and strengthen the program, he announced May 20. But the commission is already steeped in controversy before its first meeting.

Leavitt will appoint up to 15 voting commission members, including three or more health care public policy organization representatives, former or current governors and former or current state Medicaid directors. The commission will also have 23 non-voting members comprised of advisors with health care expertise or Medicaid interests and up to eight congressionally designated policy experts.
 
Not Everyone Happy With Commission Makeup

Some members of Congress, such as Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) and Rep. John D. Dingell (D-MI), don't agree with Leavitt appointing the only voting members and Congress being allowed to nominate only nonvoting members. In fact, Baucus and Dingell will protest by refusing to nominate anyone to serve on the commission, the congressmen said in a May 26 joint statement.

Baucus' and Dingell's opposition to the commission also stems from what the commission plans to accomplish.

"Regrettably, the primary initial charge of the administration's commission is to engage in a budget-driven, rather than policy-driven, exercise to produce $10 billion in 'scorable' Medicaid cuts," Baucus and Dingell said.

The Medicaid advisory commission will submit two reports to Leavitt, with the first outlining its recommendations on how Medicaid will cut $10 billion during the next
five years.
 
The first report is due Sept. 1, 2005 and will also address long-term enhancements and Medicaid performance goals.

The second report, due Dec. 31, 2006, will address how to expand Medicaid coverage while cutting costs, provide long-term care to needy beneficiaries and alter eligibility criteria and benefits design.

Commission opponents don't believe that either report will yield many useful or original ideas. The commission's "role and contribution would likely be to reiterate the Administration's current position on Medicaid reform and spending cuts, which we do not believe represents a consensus view," Dingell and Baucus said.