In Need of Healing: Medicaid and the New Jersey Budget
Featured — By Paul Tyahla on February 15, 2012 at 5:10 PM
Click here to read "In Need of Healing
New researched released by Dr. Poonam Alaigh, a member of CSI-NJ’s Board of Directors, demonstrates the cost the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) will add onto New Jersey’s Medicaid budget, and offers solutions to preserve Medicaid’s safety net while protecting taxpayers from an expected $36 billion cost increase that will occur when an additional one million New Jerseyans enroll in the program by 2023. The research was unveiled as part of a CSI-NJ report, In Need of Healing: Medicaid and the New Jersey Budget.
Federal health care reform expands Medicaid in two ways: it increases eligibility levels, and the individual mandate will cause many New Jersey residents who are eligible for Medicaid, but not enrolled, to sign up for the program. New Jersey will receive no funding above the federal government’s standard 50% reimbursement rate for these patients, creating the higher cost.
CSI-NJ proposes several solutions that were developed during a series of meetings with policy makers, providers, stake holders and health care policy experts. These changes focus on creating choice for patients, innovative approaches to increase access to care, and reforms related to care coordination, long-term care, and the use of health information technology.
To read the report in its entirety, click this link.
About the Author
Dr. Poonam Alaigh, M.D., MSHCPM, FACP, is President of Alaigh Care Associates, and a Member of the Board of Directors at the Common Sense Institute of New Jersey. Prior to joining CSI-NJ, Dr. Alaigh was Commissioner of Health and Senior Services for the State of New Jersey. She has a mufti-faceted background in health care administration and delivery, including practical hospital practice, hospital administration, managed care, pharmaceutical medicine and health care policy.
