by Christine Stuart CTNewsJunkie
Gov. Ned Lamont’s budget adjustments don’t tackle increasing Medicaid rates for any variety of services from dental care to autism services to physician rates for Connecticut’s neediest citizens. It also removes a $5.36 million increase for ambulance and methadone maintenance providers that was included in the two-year budget adopted last year.
That means emergency medical service providers will struggle to pay the raises they may have given to their employees. The budget says the Medicaid rates for these services will be assessed in the second phase of a Medicaid study that’s not due until January 2025.
The first phase of the Medicaid rate report, which was released without fanfare earlier this month, found that Connecticut’s rates are lower than some of the surrounding states, which means providers of these services get less money for the services they provide to nearly 1 million Connecticut residents.
The study examined Medicaid reimbursement rates for over 11,000 specialized physicians, dental, and behavioral health services. Results indicate that Connecticut’s payments were below a benchmark set by peer states for 85% of the services analyzed and below a benchmark based on Medicare rates for 94% of the services analyzed.
“Nonprofit providers have been making the case for years that the state is underfunding services for some of our most vulnerable citizens. This study provides devastating proof that the Connecticut is spending less than half of comparable states are spending for behavioral health services, and more than 20 percent below the benchmark for autism services,” Gian-Carl Casa, president and CEO of CT Community Nonprofit Alliance, said.
Casa continued, “Connecticut is one of the wealthiest states in the country, and in 2024, our fiscal health is better than ever. In difficult years, nonprofits faced stagnant funding and budget cuts. That meant cutbacks of services.”
“Adequate funding equals access to care. It is clear that people in need are struggling to get behavioral health, dental and basic medical service. If funded, nonprofits can provide it,” he said.
Senate Republican Leader Stephen Harding, Sen. Lisa Seminara, and Sen. Heather Somers, issued a statement saying: “Budgets are about priorities. We know that health care providers say low reimbursement rates create barriers to access for low-income residents. We know the need is great, and it continues to grow, especially in the area of behavioral health with children. Financial pressures are mounting for nonprofits and their staff. But budgets haven’t increased at the same rate that the need has increased. A bipartisan budget discussion must occur, and Republicans look forward to leading that conversation.”
Earlier this month, Lamont made it clear he would not be dealing with Medicaid rates until the second phase of the study is completed, which is next January.
“We want to take a look at all the rates holistically and see what they say,” Office of Policy and Management Secretary Jeffrey Beckham said earlier this month. “There’s going to be some that are higher and lower than others. We probably want to address some that are in acute areas that are low rates. But we want to see what the whole system looks like before we propose those.”
Beckham said there is $7 million in the current budget which addresses a couple of rates, but that’s less than initially anticipated by some providers of services, such as emergency medical transportation.
An estimated 40% of emergency medical transportation are for clients with Medicaid.