Studies Suggest Cuts in Medicaid for North Carolina, Expansion for Georgia
As North Carolina faces its "worst budget crisis in a decade," lawmakers have placed the Medicaid program "under scrutiny," the Raleigh News & Observer reports. State legislators plan to review a new study by the Lewin Group that offers suggestions on cutting costs, including: restricting access to brand-name prescription drugs and encouraging beneficiaries to use generics; reducing physician fees; re-evaluating whether to offer benefits "not included by most states' Medicaid programs," such as coverage for chiropractors; and "beef[ing] up" the team that monitors the program for fraud, waste and abuse (Rawlins/Gardner, Raleigh News & Observer, 5/2).
Georgia Should Expand
A new report revealing that the health status of rural Georgians is "at best fair and often poor" could serve as a tool to "convinc[e]" Georgia legislators to expand the state's Medicaid program, Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor said. The report, released by the Georgia Rural Development Council, also found that factors affecting poor health aren't "unique" to rural parts of the state, but that Georgia's rural areas have higher concentrations of elderly and low-income residents than do other locations. In addition to recommending a Medicaid expansion, the 23-page report also suggests that the state provide incentives to communities to develop their own referral and insurance plans and revise the Indigent Care Trust Fund to "reward" providers for treating poor patients in clinics (Jones, Florida Times-Union, 4/18).
