Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

Respondents say Medicaid, SCHIP have played vital roles in keeping underprivileged covered.

As the federal government looks to guarantee adequate health coverage for more Americans, a new poll shows that most of the health care sector supports working toward expanding access for underprivileged citizens.

In "Assessing Health Care Experts' Views On Medicaid And Its Future," a Harris Interactive survey at the behest of the Commonwealth Fund, surveyors quizzed "252 opinion leaders in health policy and innovators in health care delivery and finance health care professionals" on the future of Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program, according to the Fund.

The poll's results show "a majority who participated in this survey support policies to build on this important safety-net program to improve the nation's patchwork system of health insurance coverage," the Fund reported in a statement. An overwhelming 95 percent of opinion leaders felt that the feds should simplify rules for eligibility and re-enrollment--a move aimed at improving coverage continuity. Further, 85 percent opined that the federal government should expand eligibility so that Americans 150 percent below the poverty level can qualify for the programs.

This support is wonderful news to Fund president Karen Davis, as she said in a recent statement, "Medicaid needs to evolve in the near future to meet its goals."

Diane Rowland, the executive director of the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, agreed with Davis' assertion on Medicaid.
 
"We need to find ways to maintain and shore up, not dismantle and fray, Medicaid's safety net," Rowland commented in a statement.

More key findings from the report include:

• More than 90 percent of participants felt that Medicaid was "important in improving access" to underserved communities, including low-income citizens,
the elderly, the disabled, those with HIV/AIDS and special-needs children.

• More than 70 percent of pollsters favored a move toward pay-for-performance in SCHIP, sliding-scale Medicaid/SCHIP premiums and increased responsibility for employers that currently do not offer employees health benefits.

• More than 65 percent of the survey group was against a "proposal to cap total federal funds per covered beneficiary and allow states flexibility regarding benefit design," the Fund noted.