Posted by Tina
The ability to save money for taxpayers while ensuring that life-saving services are delivered to the truly deserving is critical during a time of growing debt and deficit spending. As we search for more sustainable delivery systems it is imperative that those charged with managing taxpayer money have the tools to eliminate waste and fraud. Several governors around the country are stepping forward to show us the way. One such man is Hailey Barbour, governor of Mississippi, who has demonstrated his leadership credentials by making changes in his state’s approach to Medicaid.
Barber at CPAC:
Our liberal media elite especially criticized my savings in Medicaid; those savings have been large – hundreds of millions.
One way was to make sure everyone receiving Medicaid was actually eligible. Under my Democrat predecessor, our Medicaid rolls shot up from about 500,000 to about 750,000 in four years. A key reform we made was to require recipients who aren’t in nursing homes or immobile because of their health to re-establish their Medicaid eligibility in person annually. After my reforms, the rolls fell from nearly 750,000 to fewer than 600,000, by more than 20%.
Another change was to emphasize strong management so our Medicaid error rate now is the fourth lowest in the country; less than half of the national average, and about half the federal Medicare error rate. Our state taxpayers save about $50 million a year just because of our lower error rate. That would equal tens of billions in savings for the federal government in Medicaid and Medicare if the national error rate was the same as that of Mississippi’s Medicaid program.
HT: Philip Klein, The American Spectator with full transcript of Barbour’s CPAC speech.