Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, HHS would pay 100 percent of the additional costs states incur to broaden the Medicaid eligibility requirements for three years, tapering off to 90 percent of the added cost after that. In his letter, Gov. LePage requested HHS provide 10 years of full additional funding, rather than three.
Maine expanded MaineCare, its version of Medicaid, years ago but has struggled to make its promised payments to hospitals. For states that expanded before the PPACA, HHS will pay for some, but not all of the residents already covered by Medicaid above the federal poverty line. That has policymakers in the state debating whether it is better to expand to federal guidelines in exchange for more money, or to avoid growing its Medicaid rolls for more residents who would receive more federal money in states that had not already expanded the program.
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Key Specialties Roundtable: What’s in Store for Service Lines and Their Leaders in 2013?
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