State of Illinois officials expect unpaid Medicaid bills to decline to $600 million by the end of the 2013 budget year, but that prediction depends on legislation that has not yet passed the Senate. As discussed here, unpaid Medicaid bills on hand were projected to reach nearly $1.9 billion by the end of the current fiscal year on June 30, 2012, due largely to significant underfunding of the program. The backlog of bills would have increased to roughly $4.5 billion by the end of FY2013 without…
This blog post was updated on June 4, 2012 to reflect corrected information. With just hours to go before a midnight adjournment deadline, the Illinois General Assembly has passed most components of a legislative package designed to eliminate a projected $2.7 billion gap in the Medicaid budget for FY2013. The bills, which are expected to be signed by Governor Pat Quinn, include Medicaid program reductions, reimbursement rate cuts for healthcare providers and a cigarette tax increase. Another…
A key component of Governor Pat Quinn’s proposal to close the State of Illinois’ $2.7 billion Medicaid funding gap in FY2013 is an increase in the State’s cigarette tax. The Governor projects that a $1 a pack increase in the cigarette tax, to $1.98, would bring $337.5 million in new revenues to the State to pay for Medicaid expenses. Medicaid spending is reimbursed by the federal government at a rate of 50%. The Governor expects federal reimbursements to bring in another $337.5 million,…
UPDATE: On May 24, 2012 the Illinois General Assembly approved legislation to permit Cook County’s public health system to obtain federal funding for medical services for low-income adults under the Medicaid program. The plan must still be approved by the federal government. House Bill 5007 passed the House by a vote of 62 to 55 and the Senate by a vote of 35 to 22. The Cook County plan required an amendment to a State law enacted in January 2011 that placed a two-year moratorium on expansion…
With new attention being paid to the cost of the State of Illinois’ Medicaid program, it seems logical to ask why the total annual costs of the program are not reflected in the State’s budget. The answer lies in an obscure statutory provision, found in Section 25 of the State Finance Act, that allows Medicaid costs to be paid from future years’ appropriations. In simple terms, this provision allows the State to hold down Medicaid appropriations below expected costs in order to help balance the…
The State of Illinois FY2013 Budget Roadmap, issued on January 30, 2012 by the Civic Federation’s Institute for Illinois’ Fiscal Sustainability, relies on a five-year budget analysis by the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services (HFS). The HFS analysis is now available on the website of the State’s Budgeting for Results Commission. The HFS analysis sheds light on the complexity of Medicaid funding and provides an unusually long term perspective on State finances. The analysis…
Governor Pat Quinn signed the State of Illinois’ FY2012 budget on June 30, 2011, a day before the start of the new fiscal year. The FY2012 budget is expected to generate a mountain of unpaid Medicaid bills and a possible court battle over union pay raises. In signing the budget, which includes $32.987 billion in general operating funds, the Governor reduced the budget passed by the General Assembly on May 31, 2011 by $376.4 million. The main cut involved a $276.0 million reduction in the…
The Illinois General Assembly reconvened on June 22, 2011 for an extra day of the spring session to sort out several issues that were not addressed three weeks ago when the legislature adjourned after approving a $33.2 billion budget. Both the House and the Senate took action to reauthorize the State’s ongoing $31-billion capital program, which was first enacted in FY2010. As previously discussed here, the original capital reauthorization bill did not pass the House after the Senate added an…
Surprising as it may seem, not all budget cuts reduce spending. A case in point is the FY2012 Medicaid budget passed by the Illinois House on May 13, 2011. House Bill 3717 includes $6.9 billion of General Funds appropriations for the State of Illinois’ Medical Assistance Program.[1] As indicated in the chart below, the House budget is $537.3 million below Governor Pat Quinn’s proposed FY2012 General Funds Medicaid appropriation. It is also $586.2 below the appropriation passed by the Senate on…
Illinois lawmakers are on a fast-track schedule to reform the State’s Medicaid program, but proposals from state officials and other experts appear to face stiff opposition. As previously discussed in this blog, the Illinois General Assembly’s review of the Medicaid program is part of a push by Democrats that began after the November 2 elections to make changes in state programs long criticized as too costly by Republicans. Bipartisan Medicaid Reform committees in the Senate and House of…
