Schwarzenegger Signs Budget; Medi-Cal Payments on the Way

[CAL/AAEM News Service]

Schwarzenegger Signs Budget; Medi-Cal Payments on the Way

 

Source: The California Healthline ( http://www.californiahealthline.org
)

Date: September 24, 2008

 

 

On Tuesday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) signed a package
of budget bills, enacting a spending plan for the state a record 85 days in to
the fiscal year, the Orange County Register reports (Joseph, Orange County
Register, 9/23).

 

With a budget in place, Controller John Chiang (D) said that
$3.6 billion in payments to Medi-Cal providers will go out within 48
hours.  Medi-Cal is California's Medicaid program (Robertson,
Sacramento Business Journal, 9/23).

 

Payments to vendors and other state creditors will be issued
shortly after the Medi-Cal payments are made, the New York Times reports
(Steinhauer, New York
Times, 9/24).

 

Until a budget was approved, California could not disburse funds to
health care institutions, schools and other entities (Yi, San Francisco
Chronicle, 9/24).

 

Budget Overview

 

Under the budget, the 10% cut to Medi-Cal provider payments
would be in effect until March 1, 2009, when smaller payment cuts would take
effect.

 

In addition, a provision included in the budget package
would require children enrolled in Medi-Cal to verify their eligibility every
six months, rather than once a year. 
Children with disabilities and pregnant teenagers would be exempt from
the requirement.

 

Premiums for Healthy Families -- California's version of the State Children's
Health Insurance Program -- will increase under the plan.

 

Schwarzenegger said the Legislature likely would call a
special election for 2009 to seek voter approval for elements of the budget
proposal dealing with the state reserve fund and borrowing against lottery
revenue (California Healthline, 9/22).

 

Line Item Vetoes

 

Before approving the budget plan, Schwarzenegger used his
line item veto authority to cut about $510 million from the budget (Rau, Los
Angeles Times, 9/24).

 

The last-minute cuts eliminated another $153 million from health
and human services programs (Orange County Register, 9/23).

 

The cuts eliminated $277,000 for prostate cancer treatment,
and cut $3.86 million from California's
prescription drug discount program (Miller, Riverside Press-Enterprise,
9/23).  

 

The cut to the drug discount program is the second
consecutive appropriation for the 2006 program that the governor has
eliminated.  The effort was intended to
negotiate prescription drug discounts for Californians, but the state has not
announced that the law has yielded any discounts from drugmakers (Los Angeles
Times, 9/24).

 

Legislation

 

With the budget resolved, Schwarzenegger has until Sept. 30
to sign or veto about 875 bills.  Without
a signature or veto, the bills automatically will become law (San Francisco
Chronicle, 9/24). 

 

For more information, please visit: 

http://www.californiahealthline.org/Articles/2008/9/24/Schwarzenegger-Signs-Budget-Medi-Cal-Payments-on-the-Way.aspx

 



Abid Mogannam &
Brian Potts MD, MBA
Managing Editors, CAL/AAEM News Service
University of California, Irvine

The CAL/AAEM Archives are available at: http://maillists.uci.edu/mailman/public/calaaem/

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