WSJ: Obama Wants to Reform Medicaid? Look Before You Leap

[This article posted on January 8, 2009. It is posted within the following categories: CMS, Politics & The Law, via Michael Douglas, MD, MBA.]

It has been referred to as Medicare’s ugly little stepchild. The Medicaid portion of the federal government’s commitment to the predominantly poor and disabled is even more of an administrative mess than its more well known “stepfather”, but what is even more galling is the lack of meaningful reportable outcomes from the program’s beneficiaries. According to a physician-columnist for the Wall Street Journal, that is part of the problem.

Continued government financial infusions into a program whose quality healthcare outcome data are essentially a qualitative wasteland of information is not the way to sustain Medicaid. Acknowledging Obama’s pledge to fiscally reform the program while guaranteeing the program’s accessibility and quality, he writes that the way to truly reform the Medicaid system is to look at its virtues — the role of the states (who receive government matching funds for their participation and constant goal of increasing its rosters to obtain even more federal dollars).

As any good conservative columnist would attest, the states should be the driving force in reforming Medicaid from the inside. Developing programs from known state resources and pools of quality administrative talents are the first steps toward creating the environment for which Obama wants to claim credit. | LINK