Still talking about the LIP (Low Income Pool) program, the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) has asked federal officials to temporarily extend the state’s Medicaid managed-care pilot program through Oct. 31. Â Such temporary extensions have become routine.
The pilot, which requires most Medicaid beneficiaries in five counties to enroll in managed-care plans, was originally scheduled to expire June 30.
The state hopes to get federal approval to continue the pilot through June 2014. But a sticking point is the possibility that the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will end Florida’s $1-billion-a-year Low Income Pool program in December 2013.
The so-called LIP program, which is part of the pilot, funnels extra money to hospitals and other providers that serve large numbers of low-income and uninsured patients.
Federal officials are looking at ending similar programs nationally in December 2013, but such a move could cost Florida health providers hundreds of millions of dollars.
The most-recent temporary extension is scheduled to expire Saturday. But Justin Senior, AHCA’s acting deputy secretary for Medicaid, sent a letter to federal officials Wednesday seeking to extend through Oct. 31 and describing the LIP funding as “critical.”
“This temporary extension will ensure continued service delivery to Medicaid recipients while the state awaits CMS’s decision (about LIP),” Senior wrote in the letter, which is posted on AHCA’s website.
