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Cuomo creates ‘Medicaid Redesign Team’
The Business Review
Date: Thursday, January 6, 2011, 6:04am EST

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has created a “Medicaid Redesign Team” and given it just a few months to change the state’s Medicaid system.
In his Jan. 5 State of the State address, Cuomo noted that New York spends more than twice the national average on Medicaid, on a per capita basis, and is second highest in the nation in spending per enrollee. Even so, the state ranks 21st for overall health system quality and last among all states for avoidable hospital use and costs.
“New York’s bloated Medicaid program, which spends at a rate more than twice the national average, must be reformed to help our state begin to make ends meet,” he said. “This new team has been tasked with finding ways to save Medicaid money which will finally give taxpayers a needed break.”
The 25-member team will begin work on Friday, Jan. 7, and must submit its first report with findings and recommendations to Cuomo by March 1 for consideration in the state budget process. The team will submit quarterly reports thereafter until the end of Fiscal Year 2011-12, when it will disbands.
State Medicaid Director Jason Helgerson will serve as executive director and the state budget director will serve as a non-voting member. Team members will include state officers or employees with relevant expertise; two members each of the state Assembly and Senate; health care industry leaders; insurance industry leaders and business and consumer representatives.
Paul Macielak, president of the New York Health Plan Association, said the Albany-based group’s members “stand ready” to work with Cuomo.
“New York’s Medicaid system is, as everyone acknowledges, the most expensive in the nation,” Macielak said. “[We] agree that significant redesign that promotes the greater use of managed care is the only way we will be able to achieve a less costly and sustainable system.”...................>>>>................>>>>..................http://www.bizjournals.com/albany/news/2011/01/05/cuomo-creates-medicaid-redesign-team.html