The fight over outsourcing management of Oklahoma’s expanding Medicaid program looms large over the upcoming legislative session. During a budget hearing
Hamilton: Lawmakers must address Medicaid issues By: Arnold Hamilton Guest Columnist January 21, 2021
Arnold Hamilton
There is much handwringing these days about how state lawmakers will fund Oklahoma’s share of Medicaid expansion.
It’s not big money: worst-case cost scenario suggests about $40 for every Oklahoman. And the return is breathtaking: Nine federal dollars for every $1 the state must invest.
Plus – and this is truly the most important number – 200,000 more low-income Oklahomans gain access to lifesaving, life-enhancing health care.
But in a legislative year with more-than-usual budgetary what-ifs, finding the $125 million to $164 million to fund Medicaid expansion could produce some tricky political decisions.
Thanks to a new policy, low-income Oklahomans will soon have better access to in-patient mental health and addiction services. Federal guidelines don't
By: Barry Mangold
Thanks to a temporary waiver from a federal agency, Oklahoma hospitals can transfer patients to care facilities like nursing homes with less red tape.
“This is just something that we need to do to create more capacity as our COVID numbers keep expanding,” said Patti Davis, president of the Oklahoma Hospital Association.
Davis said the waiver expedites the process of transferring patients from a hospital to a care facility, assuming the facility is able to provide care necessary for the patient.
Patients who would be eligible for such a transfer would likely require no acute care, but not be able to be left totally alone.
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) A former employee of Gov. Kevin Stitt’s administration has registered as a lobbyist for a private health care company that’s bidding on a state contract to manage Oklahoma’s Medicaid program.
Former Deputy Secretary of State Samantha Davidson Guinn left the Stitt administration in September, and court records show she registered as a lobbyist for Healthcare Highways and CareSource Oklahoma later that month, the Oklahoman reported Monday.
Stitt had announced over the summer that he would outsource care for many who rely on the state’s Medicaid program, which was recently expanded to serve more low-income residents. The private companies would be contracted to manage the program’s spending.