ALBANY -- The first phase of the state's attempt to overhaul its health insurance program for low-income residents has achieved almost $600 million in savings in its first six months, according to a progress report released Wednesday.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo's Medicaid Redesign Team gathered at The Egg to hear team reports and receive a demonstration of the Medicaid Visual Data Mining system, which allows state officials and health care managers to track spending in a more targeted and quick-response fashion.
"We are now live-managing the program," said Greg Allen of the state Department of Health, who demonstrated how the system could be used to track anomalies that could indicate possible fraud or other problems.
State Health Commissioner Nirav Shah suggested the data tool could be used by hospitals to track re-admission rates due to infections or other phenomena.
The MRT's initial batch of 78 cost-cutting measures were adopted in the state budget at the end of March. State Medicaid Director Jason Helgerson said the vast majority of those were either in place or in progress. Of the changes requiring approval from the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, 20 have been approved and 32 are awaiting decision.
This year, the state Medicaid rolls added roughly 72,000 people through August. The system currently includes 4.96 million people, almost a quarter of the total state population.
The MRT's initial round of recommendations are intended to achieve $2.2 billion in savings by the end of the current fiscal year.
DOH's John Ulberg said that while the number of people in the program was growing, more than two-thirds of enrollees are now in managed care plans, which the MRT favors over the old "fee-for-service" model.
The second half of the meeting was given over to updates from 10 working groups that will craft the next set of recommendations for possible inclusion in the 2012-2013 state budget. The MRT is scheduled to disband before the start of the next fiscal year April 1.
Several MRT members emphasized that the effort had improved dialogue system wide -- between state and federal officials, government and health providers, and between individual state agencies.
"There have been conversations across health care silos that haven't taken place before, I think, ever," Helgerson said.
The budget sets a state Medicaid spending cap of $15.3 billion for the current fiscal year, and $15.9 billion in 2012-2013.
Reach Seiler at 454-5619 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
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