The Oklahoma Health Care Authority balanced the state budget by postponing three billing and payment cycles to fiscal year 2019, which will stall Medicaid reimbursements from the state to healthcare providers, according to the Muskogee Phoenix.
The OHCA's decision to delay the billing cycle was a result of a lack of state-appropriated funds and the uncertainty surrounding the Medicaid program and Children's Health Insurance Program as Republican lawmakers continue efforts to repeal and replace the ACA. The decision will be felt by providers next fiscal year as payments will lag.
In Oklahoma, the federal match rate for CHIP is 94 percent compared to the national average of 57 percent, which caused agency officials to be wary of any changes at the federal level.
"We didn't know what we were going to get in our budget, so we accounted for just the straight Medicaid match," Jo Stainsby, director of public information at OHCA, told the Muskogee Phoenix. She cited a variance of $50 million for the state if the Medicaid match rate decreases to the straight matching rate.