{"id":8428,"date":"2011-12-09T06:37:09","date_gmt":"2011-12-09T06:37:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newspaper.ctsi-logistics.com\/?p=8428"},"modified":"2011-12-09T06:37:09","modified_gmt":"2011-12-09T06:37:09","slug":"kilili-babautas-figures-on-medicaid-awards-outdated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/kilili-babautas-figures-on-medicaid-awards-outdated\/","title":{"rendered":"Kilili: Babauta’s figures on Medicaid awards outdated"},"content":{"rendered":"
$18.2M total Medicaid grant funds expected for CNMI this fiscal year<\/div>\n
By Moneth Deposa
\nReporter<\/div>\n

U.S. Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan described as outdated and incorrect the figures presented Wednesday by Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. chief executive officer Juan N. Babauta on the Medicaid program.<\/p>\n

He said the $5-million cap has already been removed by the federal government and the reimbursement ratio has been changed as well beginning this 2011.<\/p>\n

The Medicaid program is a federal\/state program administered by the states and funded by both the federal and states revenues through the 50-50 matching funds. Each year, federal cap is set at $5 million which requires an equal amount from the CNMI government. Any expenses in excess of $10 million is shouldered by the state.<\/p>\n

Babauta said Wednesday that he wants this $5 million cap removed and the reimbursement rate be changed to as low as 75-25 matching rate to help the CNMI government address the increasing number of clients under the Medicaid program, which yearly has only $10 million (from federal and state) funds combined.<\/p>\n

But according to Sablan, annual federal Medicaid grant to the CNMI is no longer capped at $5 million as what Babauta believes.<\/p>\n

\u201cRather than being eligible for just $40 million for the eight years from 2011 to 2019, the Northern Marianas is now eligible for $140 million during that same period. The additional $100 million became fully available on July 1,\u201d Sablan told Babauta in his letter dated Dec. 7.<\/p>\n

\u201c[I’m] sincerely hoping that [the] CNMI will use the money wisely and will spread its drawdowns over the eight years so [the] CNMI will not run short of Medicaid funds at the end,\u201d he stated in the letter.<\/p>\n

Sablan said in fact, the CNMI is expecting $18.233 million in total Medicaid grants in FY 2012.<\/p>\n

The congressman also informed the CEO the history behind the changes in federal grants under the said program.<\/p>\n

He said it was in 2009 when U.S. Congress increased the Medicaid grant to the Commonwealth by 30 percent to $6.474 million under the provision of Section 5001 of the American Recovery Reinvestment Act which, he said, was one of his first votes in Congress. Sablan told Babauta, a Republican, that every Republican voted against the said measure.<\/p>\n

In 2010, the Medicaid grant was raised again through the section 1204 of the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, commonly known as Obamacare. Under this law, additional $100 million to the CNMI was provided from July 1, 2011 through Sept. 30, 2019.<\/p>\n

He said as soon as this became law, the CNMI in fact, has quickly taken advantage of the new Obamacare money and drew down $8.1 million in the first three months it was available.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the Commonwealth has submitted its budget for FY 2012, projecting that in addition to the base amount of $5 million another $12 million of the Obamacare Medicaid funds will be used in the current year. On top of this $17 million, the NMI is also eligible for $861,000 from State Children’s Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP) and smaller amounts for information technology and administration. So the total federal Medicaid grant funds expected by the Commonwealth for FY 2012 is $18.233 million,\u201d Sablan explained in his letter to Babauta.<\/p>\n

Sablan also announced that the CNMI will also be eligible for another $9.5 million between 2014 and 2019 by virtue of Obamacare and these funds may be added to the Medicaid grant to help low-income persons, or, if the Commonwealth chooses to establish a health insurance exchange, the $9.5 million may be used to subsidize private health insurance premiums for the middle class.<\/p>\n

On the reimbursement ratio of 50-50, Sablan said the federal-CNMI match for Medicaid grants has been changed to 55-45 ratio through section 2005 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The 45 percent share for the CNMI, he said, saves the Commonwealth $7 million over the 2011 to 2019 period. Efforts to further lower the CNMI matching share, he said, will continue to be among his goals in Congress.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

$18.2M total Medicaid grant funds expected for CNMI this fiscal year By Moneth Deposa Reporter…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8428\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}