AUGUSTA, Maine — Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services will wait until the Legislature greenlights its budget before taking a federal official up on her offer to help Maine reform its Medicaid program, DHHS Commissioner Mary Mayhew said Wednesday.
Last week, U.S. Health and Human Services Commissioner Kathleen Sebelius said she would send a team of experts to Maine to help the state reduce its Medicaid costs. Sebelius was answering question from U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe at a meeting of the Senate Finance Committee about how states can save money while preserving Medicaid coverage for residents.
“I actually spoke today with our regional administrator for Medicaid and we talked about engaging their technical assistance team and that we would do so as soon as the Legislature acts on the budget and we know what will be a part of our proposal,” Mayhew said.
Her department can’t begin to work with the team until then, she said.
“Otherwise it’s all hypothetical,” Mayhew said.
The DHHS supplemental budget, covering about $120 million in savings for this fiscal year, is expected to go to a final vote this week. Senate Democrats blocked the measure last Thursday.
Another $80 million in savings for the next fiscal year will be addressed in a separate bill later this month.
LePage has proposed dropping Medicaid benefits, known in the state as MaineCare, for 65,000 Mainers to balance the books at DHHS. About $37 million of those cuts requires Sebelius to grant Maine a special exemption from federal rules that require states to preserve Medicaid coverage.
Democrats have been skeptical that Maine will win the waiver, citing a letter sent last month by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services oversees.
The letter said the centers would grant waivers only to states experimenting with new ways to provide coverage to the need, and not to efforts aimed at balancing budgets.
The letter also said legislative action has no bearing on whether the agency would grant the waiver.
Mayhew reiterated Wednesday that Sebelius has told Gov. Paul LePage personally that she can’t respond to a waiver request until the state submits a formal proposal. The federal Medicaid team will work with DHHS to craft its application for a waiver after a budget passes, Mayhew said.
Medicaid’s technical assistance teams partner with states to improve care and track down savings. That can involve restructuring payment systems, identifying programs that could qualify for federal reimbursement and sharing ideas that worked in other states.
Sebelius sent a letter to U.S. governors in February 2011 offering the teams’ tailored assistance to revamp state Medicaid programs. Since then, 25 states, not including Maine, have taken advantage of that help, according to a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services spokesman.
DHHS already communicates regularly with the centers, Mayhew said. In recent months, her department has spoken with Medicare officials about efforts to better coordinate care and improve recipients’ health, she said.
“We work very closely with CMS on almost a daily basis, with requests for guidance and clarification around CMS policy,” Mayhew said.
Just what Maine needs is advice from an administration that cannot develop a budget or stop spending money, on how to make cutbacks.
Amen the Libs like to jump on LePage for trying to get a handle on Maine’s problems. Though they refuse to see the problems their hero Emperor Nobama has caused. His new budget that he proposed raises the debt by another trillion dollars at least while making no cuts to these programs. It just more of the same. A Liberal spending spree on more failed Liberal programs , programs that were in the stimulus. While also him talking about another stimulus as of late. That is why experts have claimed we won’t get below 8% unemployment until mid 2014 and have gas above $5.00 a gallon. We are headed towards a Liberal Socialist Welfare Haven nationally going into huge debt. Tens of trillions in debt as a matter of fact. With bankruptcy not far behind. Liberalism the way life as they want it to be.
I hope this link works*. It shows–
Reagan increased the debt 189%.
GHW Bush increased it 85%.
Clinton increased in 37%
GW Bush increased it 86%
Obama has increased it 35%
Republicans LOVE increasing debt when they are in office. When Democrats are in office, debt suddenly becomes something horrible. If you ever read Paul Krugman, you’ll see that debt is not evil, and severe austerity measures kill countries’ economies.
*http://tinyurl.com/7ceww6l
If you really love the figures then do the math, what percentage is that per president per year ? I think you’ll find that Obama is on par with GW but way ahead of the others !
As Republicans pointed out year after year (until President Obama came to office), increasing debt is NOT necessarily a bad thing. Republicans increased debt over and over and over.
Paul Krugman noted: “We need more, not less, government spending to get us out of our unemployment trap. And the wrongheaded, ill-informed obsession with debt is standing in the way. ”
The Republican obsession with austerity is going to destroy the American economy by making sure more and more people get laid off and any help unemployed people are now getting will be slashed. This means less and less money will be spent in our communities, putting YOUR job–all our jobs–at risk.
(http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/02/opinion/krugman-nobody-understands-debt.html?_r=2)
Why don’t you show us your figures? Are you a poor-mathematician too?
I complete agree that with the premise, but we at or around 100% debt to GDP ratio and need to do something about lowering that, when interest payments start getting out of control we will have to really worry then.
If you follow this paper , Bonney , you’ll remember that the administration did in fact develop a budget. It seems that some vote seeking politicians are the ones who insist on re writing it !
I think it is wonderful that the Secretary offered to send someone. LePage needs some help and some1 is offering. Don’t kick a gift horse in the mouth.
Well Mary after watching you flounder for the past year all I can offer you is the thought that this will all get easier once you get a little experience under your belt and learn how to do your job properly. Rule number one, don’t be a follower. Be a leader for the “public” you represent.
Just another Republican taking from the people for ideological reasons that serve the interests of the rich.
Mary Mayhew is a registered Democrat not a Republican. She is like a few Democrats who have common sense to know these Welfare Programs are no longer sustainable and are not worth funding at the current levels. That cuts are needed to be made and they have to happen if we are going to get our economy going with job growth and real prosperity.
The new ideal is for America to save money by making sure that ever-larger segments of its population lose access to preventive health care.
This results in poorer public health and a weaker America.
It’s the Republican way of life.
If the Liberals, Communists and Democrats didn’t maintain poverty in this country they (you) would have no constituency voting your way. If someone asks me if I want a $1000 with no strings attached of course I would say yes and vote for you. Poverty is a necessity for the Left, Liberals Communists and Democrats; who the hell else would vote for you. After the all the $trillions the Left has spent on the war on poverty, why do we still have poverty? The Left, Democrats, Communists and Democrats have a huge vested interest in maintaining poverty as it has created a huge voting block dependent on poverty and entitlements.
I guess my idea of “worth” is much different than yours. Human life should carry a price or an R or D after your name. Not worth funding?
My idea of worth is growing jobs, businesses and the economy not growing Welfare Programs. That may be what folks like you want. The majority of us working folks/taxpayers want more jobs, businesses, lower taxes, better infrastructure roads, bridges, new Interstates, East-West Highways etc.. That is our priority not growing wasteful government programs that don’t work and waste taxpayers money and Maine State Government period. We know if Democrats get back control of the Legislature what will happen Spending will go through the roof and Welfare Expansion will be a priority to them not jobs.
I would be willing to bet all the taxpayers in the USA would disagree as we are the ones funding this mess. If welfare serves anybody it would be the liberals who make it and grow it to the point we are at now. I say end all of it close dhhs and every other welfare place ( ie anybody who hands out money to someone who did not EARN it) and let the people who EARN the money keep it.
The public that she represents does that include the taxpayers or only those leeches on the receiving end?
Now, isn’t this just remarkable. She has concluded that the governor and she won’t get a waiver, now….it’s all the legislature’s fault. THEN the governor has said that he’s going to veto, then he said that too much has been said too much about it (a veto), but yet…..they both say it’s not enough???
It’s like a puzzle?
I hope you go and cut anyway .
Wow – way to lead from behind. I would assume that Penguin put you up to this ‘let’s play it safe’ strategy, that is more concerned with protecting the administration than with solving any meaningful problem.
Ahh you want him to user the boy President’s strategy?
It seems funny that they wait till its all in the s**t before help is offered. LOL guess the govt. will always be late.
All of this only tells me that the LePage administration doesn’t want any help from the feds. The LePage administration wants to go down the road they want to go down without any concern for what is right or wrong. If this was not the case, they would have had the feds here before they put forth their budget. That would have been the sensible way to do things.
That’s like a plumber saying, go ahead and put the pipes in wrong, then I will come back and tell you how to do it properly.
LOL…”Who’s ( whose ) on first” ??
Mary, do yourself a favor and just get the DHHS out of the way and let the Legislature do it’s job. And tell Paulie to as well. The budget problem has been resolved to a large part, sufficient for a vote to be taken and the budget to be put in place. All that’s needed now is some real leadership. And one of the most important lessons that all leader’s need to learn is when to just get out of the way of those who know what they are doing do what they know best. This political ‘fingerprint syndrome’ has become an almost chronic ego teaser that every political figure winds up falling victim to. Maine needs to break free from this nonsense and get on with putting the State back to work.
More importantly, that the Fed’s HHS is just waiting to be told that the budget is resolved now places the ability and process to reform of the MaineCare squarely on the shoulder’s of the Governor and his ability to just get out of the way and let the Legislature get on with it. ‘Nitpicking’ is just gonna slow up the whole process. Maine deserves better and smarter leadership than ‘nitpicking’ and political temper tantrum’s. The Legislature finally got past it, to a large extent, and now it’s the Governor’s turn to show mature leadership, not Party melodrama and theatrical temper tantrum’s. Maine’s GOP recent Caucus performance (and that’s being as mild as I can say within the BDN Guidelines) does not bode well in either of these area’s. This is now the time that the Governor can step out and show some independent leadership that’s free of Party politics and manipulation. And that’s what he was elected to show and do.
What did you ever do to get Mainer’s working?
The Liberals don’t want people working why should they start caring now. For 36 years they put the working folks issues at back burner while catering to their voting block of Welfare Bums, Special Interest and Ex Politicians like Angus King, Dennis Bailey, Kurt Adams. All these mooching leeches had to get their taxpayer subsidies they keep running back for more every time.
“Sebelius sent a letter to U.S. governors in February offering the teams’ tailored assistance to revamp state Medicaid programs. Since then, 25 states, not including Maine, have taken advantage of that help, according to a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services spokesman.”
How come Lepage hasn’t taken up this offer, since we do get federal matching dollars spent in the Maine Care program(Medicaid)?
Get rid of the Methadone clinics!!! That will solve a lot of the problem, and probably the drug problem. Those people need jobs, not the state of Maine paying for them.
Than they will either end up in jail or prison
Thats ok…..until they dry out
Jails are more expensive, I thought the point was to reduce the budget, not increase it??
well….. hopefully you will be the next victim, not someone else
At 35,000 a year in jail yup thats great
I suppose you think these Meth clinics are free…. and the people that go there aren’t getting paid to do so??? What about the court costs when they rob people and steal to get their drugs and the damage it does to the victims?? Do you think that crime has gone down at all?? If you do, you are sadly mistaken. People don’t even want to go to Bangor anymore. Have you seen the rise on gun sales?? A very worth while investment. We will clean up the trash one way or another
This what happens every time when people do not have have jobs it happen the last time people did not have jobs or don’t you remember .
They don’t have jobs because they can’t pass drug tests!
So people should not whine about them
Your right, we need to just stop ALL assistance.
Look at all the money that could be saved as people call them lazy bums can get a job . Only the real needy would be helped
Federal help…..everyone thinks that is just great, take the burden off the Maine taxpayers, HELLO….. Do you not pay federal taxes as well???? I know I do.
When i look at her picture , my immediate thought is INCOMPETENT AND SLIPPERY !
Incompetent and in need of “federal help”.
Cluster
yessah
This incompetent head of the DHHS needs to be fired and one hired that knows what they are doing. She can’t even prepare a budget properly. The Feds cannot help with the budget shortfall, but they can step in and prepare a budget for her, then the legislature will know how much money is really needed.
Who there knows what they are doing you ??
This is just the beginning of the goat rape Obamacare is going to be if and when it takes effect and it makes absolutely no sense. Barak Obama shoved this legislation down the throats of the American people, only to grant waivers because it is unaffordable and unsustainable once enacted. I predict there is no way in h*ll Maine will be granted this waiver because if they grant it to Maine they’ll have to grant it to the other states as well and there is no way that will happen. I don’t know why people can’t seem to understand this fact- it’s common sense.
I totally agree with you but….. he can always print more money. He is a total waste and hopefully people will see this in November!
Something about Mary good movie
Maine has enough financial problems without the help of Obama and his band of merry bandits .
I wonder about her qualifications for the job she is attempting to do?
Mary Mayhew simply doesn’t have a clue, does she?