Louisiana FMAP To Plunge. Talks Requested
In a letter to the interim secretary of the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, DHH secretary Alan Levine has requested a meeting to discuss the predicted federal match for Medicaid for Louisiana in 2010 and 2011.
Louisiana's federal match tends to run between 69.6 percent and 73 percent, but current forecasts predict a drop to 67.6 percent in 2010 and 63.1 percent in 2011. Considering the current match is 72 percent, the drop is substantial, representing hundreds of millions of dollars. An enhanced match for the Louisiana CHIP program is also predicted to drop from 80 percent to 74 percent.
Levine is concerned that the infusion of federal resources post Hurricanes Katrina and Rita have created an artificial spike in per-capita income due to an inclusion of one-time recovery dollars in the federal calculations. He has requested a meeting with HHS to discuss the state's options and to request a temporary "lock-in" of the state's historical average while we recover from the impact of hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav, and Ike and allow the FMAP formula to normalize.
