Public Policy - State Legislation
State Budget
The FY 2010 budget was passed by the legislature and signed into law at the end of June. The major legislative issue for the community health centers was the potential loss of dental services for Rite Care parents. Four budget items are of particular note:
Dental services for parents enrolled in RIte Care were restored in the budget as passed. RIHCA worked diligently to get information to legislators and the public that cutting dental services for 38,000 parents enrolled in RIte Care for a savings of $525,277 would be a giant step back from the progress made over the last decade in building up a meaningful dental safety net in Rhode Island.
Below is more information regarding dental services in Rhode Island:
The FY 2010 budget includes the restoration of premiums for RIte Care to the prior year level.
Jane Hayward’s March 26, 2009 testimony regarding premium roll-backs
The budget also restores eligibility for RIte Care for lawfully present immigrant children (thanks to CHIPRA for providing federal matched funding for coverage of these children).
The budget as passed restored Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner (which had, briefly, been threatened).
Generic-only prescriptions
In 2009, DHS implemented a policy requiring that all medications prescribed for children and parents covered by RIte Care insurance be generic. The medical providers at the community health centers understand the need to be mindful of costs, both to our individual low-income patients and to the health care system as a whole. Health center providers have already been habitually prescribing generic medications wherever it is clinically acceptable. RIHCA therefore generally supports a policy requiring generic prescriptions.
However, there have been some difficulties in implementation of the policy. RIHCA is monitoring the situation, and working with DHS and our providers to ensure that patients receive the medications they need for good health.
Global Medicaid Waiver
In January 2009, Rhode Island’s Global Medicaid Waiver was approved by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and went into effect. This waiver has the potential to redesign the delivery of services to individuals who receive their health insurance through Medicaid. RIHCA’s President and CEO, Jane Hayward has testified before the state House and Senate regarding the waiver, and companion oversight legislation. The oversight legislation was passed by the General Assembly in June 2009 and signed into law by the Governor on July 1, 2009.
RIHCA’s President and CEO, Jane Hayward, sits on the Global Medicaid Waiver Oversight Taskforce, and chairs the Medicaid benefit redesign: Acute/Primary Care workgroup.
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