CHT Project Director Frogue Testifies about Medicaid Transparency to House Committee
Date: July 22, 2008
Location: Washington, DC
Jim Frogue's written remarks >>
Jim Frogue, The Center’s State Project Director, testified July 22nd to the United States House of Representatives’ Committee on Energy and Commerce’s Subcommittee on Health. The hearing was titled, “State Fiscal Relief: Protecting Health Coverage in an Economic Downturn.”
The hearing focused, in part, on House Resolution 5268, which would temporarily increase Medicaid’s federal medical assistance percentage, thereby increasing the amount of federal funds given to states for their Medicaid programs.
During his testimony and the subsequent question and answer session, Mr. Frogue encouraged law makers to utilize this legislation as a way to leverage reform and call for quality improvements and transparency. He called on the Committee to request that states post their Medicaid patient encounter data on the Internet as a way to increase accountability for how Medicaid dollars are spent, thereby improving health outcomes and reducing fraud within the program. Citing the concept of “wikinomics,” Mr. Frogue contended that by making patient encounter data public, state Medicaid programs would be able to leverage the collective knowledge of policymakers, doctors, economists, and the widest range of individuals with expertise in medicine, fraud detection and accounting.
Testifying along side Mr. Frogue was Robert Helms, Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, Robert Tannenwald, President of the National Tax Association and Vice President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, Gerald McEntee, International President of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, and Heather Howard, Commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services.
Jim Frogue's full written remarks (PDF) >>
Audio webcast of the hearing >>
Healthcare Finance News: House panel considers relief for state Medicaid programs
|
|
|
|
|
|
