CAMI Supports Efforts to Ensure Medicaid Integrity; Calls Barrasso Bill Important Opportunity for Holistic Discussion
The Center for Accountability, Modernization and Innovation (CAMI) credits U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) for introducing the Safeguarding Medicaid Act (S. 1082), which would require annual eligibility verification for all Medicaid recipients. The bill offers an important opportunity for further discussions aimed at ensuring Medicaid’s integrity as well as its ability to ensure a sustainable safety net for those in need. CAMI recommends that the committee of jurisdiction, on a bipartisan basis, work to expand the bill in ways that both ensure enhanced Medicaid payment accuracy and avoid creating additional administrative costs or unnecessary barriers to access for qualified recipients.
CAMI supports Senator Barrasso’s goal and appreciates his leadership on this issue. His legislation provides an opportunity to address program improvements holistically, including directly related issues such as the savings and improvements in program integrity that can be achieved through more extensive validation of state payments to managed health care plans, which the Government Accountability Office has repeatedly cited as a major source of Medicaid waste. It is also important to address the risk of burdening States with additional administrative costs they cannot afford and to consider adjusting asset limits for the blind as disabled, as recommended in a bipartisan bill co-sponsored by Sens. Bill Cassidy, Ron Wyden, Rick Scott and others. Those limits ($2000 per individual, $3000 per family) have not changed since 1989.
CAMI is founded on the belief that reducing the costs of federal benefits programs requires a combination of public-private partnerships (and competition for those government contracts), and an openness to real innovation and accountability. Those reforms must share the twin goals of enhancing program integrity while also ensuring eligible beneficiaries receive their benefits in a timely manner without facing unnecessary barriers.
In that spirit, CAMI will continue working with policymakers to ensure efficient Medicaid access for those in need through innovative, accurate, and effective administrative processes.