Illinois Officials Should Seek Funding Source Other Than Medicaid for Internet Service, Editorial Says

A decision by the Illinois Department of Public Aid to spend $400,000 in Medicaid funds on a "for-profit" program that offers low-income parents of premature babies advice via the Internet "raises serious questions about the state's priorities," a Chicago Tribune editorial states. The Tribune notes that the state is facing a "steep budget shortfall" and has begun "slashing" Medicaid reimbursements to hospitals statewide, making it a "curious time" for the initiative. The program, known as Baby CareLink, is operated by Clinician Support Technology of Massachusetts at a cost to the state of $2,000 per hospitalized infant. While $400,000 may be a "drop in the bucket" for the state's $7 billion Medicaid program, the Internet initiative is a "luxury in such austere times," the editorial states. Further, because about 75% of program participants do not own computers, "[m]any end up accessing the information at computers provided at the hospitals," where some doctors say the participants' time "could be better spent with their babies." The editorial, noting that Illinois is the only state using Medicaid funds to pay for Baby CareLink, concludes: "If Baby CareLink provides real cost-cutting benefits, hospitals should be clamoring to use it without Medicaid funding. If not, its investors should look somewhere other than Illinois' hard-pressed Medicaid program to make their next buck" (Chicago Tribune, 3/27).