ARTICLE
Last week, FSSA released the first Medicaid Monthly report. This is one of FSSA’s mitigation strategies in response to the Medicaid shortfall around transparency and will be a more timely overview of the current Medicaid spend versus previous forecasts and budgeted amounts. As we anticipated, there has been no significant change in the numbers. This is for many reasons, but the main reason being that the cost-saving mitigation strategies do not go into effect until July 1. Therefore, we would not plan to see any appreciable change in the shortfall until well into the fall. Alternative way to word this so it reads easier: Due to the timeline for the proposed changes, February expenditures have increased by 0.8% compared to the December forecast and by 14.1% compared to February 2023. Additionally, there was an issue with a Medicaid provider claims submission clearinghouse, which may cause further increases as delayed claims are processed in the coming months. On the Fee for Service side, the Attendant Care program under the A&D Waiver has exceeded the December 2023 forecast by $28M. Again, this should have been anticipated given that plans including Attendant Care had not changed and those changes will not be fully implemented until July 1. The report goes on to say that A&D waiver expenditures, totaling $1.4B, is a $657M increase over SFY 2023 expenditures through February of 2023. The report notes that additional A&D waiver expenditures were “offset by favorable variances in other HCBS waiver programs in Long-Term Community Care.” While there is a lot of great data in this report, the key takeaway is that as of February 2024, the Medicaid shortfall is $232.9M since July 2023. The entire 2024 forecasted shortfall amount was $255.2M, meaning 91% of the forecasted shortfall amount has been expended with four months left in the fiscal year.
Last week, FSSA released the first Medicaid Monthly report. This is one of FSSA’s mitigation strategies in response to the Medicaid shortfall around transparency and will be a more timely overview of the current Medicaid spend versus previous forecasts and budgeted amounts.
As we anticipated, there has been no significant change in the numbers. This is for many reasons, but the main reason being that the cost-saving mitigation strategies do not go into effect until July 1. Therefore, we would not plan to see any appreciable change in the shortfall until well into the fall.
Alternative way to word this so it reads easier: Due to the timeline for the proposed changes, February expenditures have increased by 0.8% compared to the December forecast and by 14.1% compared to February 2023. Additionally, there was an issue with a Medicaid provider claims submission clearinghouse, which may cause further increases as delayed claims are processed in the coming months.
On the Fee for Service side, the Attendant Care program under the A&D Waiver has exceeded the December 2023 forecast by $28M. Again, this should have been anticipated given that plans including Attendant Care had not changed and those changes will not be fully implemented until July 1. The report goes on to say that A&D waiver expenditures, totaling $1.4B, is a $657M increase over SFY 2023 expenditures through February of 2023.
The report notes that additional A&D waiver expenditures were “offset by favorable variances in other HCBS waiver programs in Long-Term Community Care.”
While there is a lot of great data in this report, the key takeaway is that as of February 2024, the Medicaid shortfall is $232.9M since July 2023. The entire 2024 forecasted shortfall amount was $255.2M, meaning 91% of the forecasted shortfall amount has been expended with four months left in the fiscal year.