Democrat New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who’s taken a moderate path toward Medicaid reform, is looking to share his team’s cost-containment efforts with the public through a new website. The Times-Union reports:
One of the hallmarks of this year’s budget was the governor’s plan to greatly reduce Medicaid spending through the work of a redesign team that included representatives of the state’s health care industry, labor leaders, advocates and lawmakers. They were ultimately assigned to find $2.3 billion in Medicaid savings and limit the state share of the program to $15.1 billion.
If the redesign team’s recommendations don’t work, Cuomo’s Health Commissioner Nirav Shah can make many of the cuts himself.
The public will be able to track how the cost-containment efforts are going through a yet-to-be-named web page, said Budget Director Robert Megna. Scheduled to launch soon, the site will show how much Medicaid money has been spent to date.
“It will be a model for other states,” Megna said during a talk Thursday at the Rockefeller Institute. He said the federal Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services is looking at the concept for use nationwide.
Bears watching.
