Thousands rolled off Medicaid who could still qualify for benefits, budget talks reveal

Shannon Heckt
·3 min read

BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — As lawmakers debate the state’s budget, the Louisiana Department of Health is seeing tough scrutiny about Medicaid and mental health services.

LDH’s budget is proposed at just under $20 billion. While a large portion of that is federal money, most of it goes towards paying Medicaid vendors. Lawmakers pointed out that the rates for providers serving Medicaid patients have not been increased since 2012. With costs soaring, it is becoming a burden for some doctors providing care to the most vulnerable.

“We’ve got these wonderful providers and these wonderful clinics that are fixing to bail on the Medicaid program because they can’t keep the lights on,” Secretary Ralph Abraham said.

LDH is in charge of rolling people off of Medicaid who don’t qualify anymore. Over 400,000 people were taken off of Medicaid after the extra pandemic coverage ended. While some qualified to be put back on, there are over 270,000 they couldn’t reach who have lost coverage and could still qualify. Of the closures of benefits, over 100,000 are children and over 17,000 are pregnant women.

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The department gave a rough timeline of the end of the year to find a solution to raising those rates to match Medicare prices. They are speaking with representatives from South Carolina, a state similar in population, about how they have managed to finance their program.

“We know that there is a subset of those that wrote all that still qualify. We want those patients back on the rolls. As I said in committee, the worst thing that can happen to that patient is to be uninsured,” Abraham said. “And the worst thing that can happen to the Louisiana taxpayer is for that patient to be uninsured because their only access is the emergency room.”

Some legislators on the Appropriations Committee were shocked to hear that as of July 2023, before the rolloff began, 45% of the state’s entire population was on Medicaid.

Lawmakers want to know what the department is doing to get better health outcomes for the state. Abraham said some parts of the budget are bad and spending needs to be scrutinized. He did not lay out specifics of what he would change but said he is working to interview parts of the department to see where changes could be made.

“We’re spending a whole lot of money on obesity, diabetes, maternal health, infant health, but we’re dead last in the United States as far as our ranking. Where are we failing that patient?” Abraham asked.

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Legislators also emphasized investing in behavioral health as a major part of addressing many of the state’s greatest problems. State Rep. Jerome Zeringue pointed out that last year $17 million was allocated for behavioral health services in higher education that has yet to be implemented and time is running out to spend the money. LDH said there were issues with contracts and they’re working to get it worked out.

The budget has a long way to go before it is approved by the governor and lawmakers made it clear they have more questions about Medicaid coverage and where money is going to support the health of Louisiana residents.

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