MARYLAND: The legislature convened on January 13 and is looking at a nearly $2 billion deficit for fiscal year 2011. Governor Martin O’Malley has ordered over $1 billion in spending reductions since the start of fiscal year 2010, including deep cuts to Medicaid provider and managed care organization reimbursement rates.

With a “rainy day” reserve fund of only $615 million, further reductions to state programs are expected. The state’s weak economy will stall enactment of comprehensive reforms but will not stop the ongoing reform debate. Health care proposals that may be considered in 2010 include restrictions on the use of gender as a rating factor, an autism mandate, an oral chemotherapy parity requirement, and guidelines for the reimbursement of out-of-network providers based on health plan determinations of “usual, reasonable and customary” amounts. Also, Governor O’Malley has announced the appointment of Elizabeth Sammis as Interim Commissioner of the Maryland Insurance Administration.  Last month, Commissioner Ralph S. Tyler announced his resignation to take a job in the Obama administration.

Related posts:

  1. CALIFORNIA MEDICARE: The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst Office California’s credit rating was also downgraded from an A to an A- last week...
  2. ARIZONA MEDICARE: After convening the 2010 legislative session The Medicaid program, which covers all Arizonans who are at or below the federal poverty level, accounts for $1 billion of the deficit....
  3. 3 Million Disability Applicants Each Year For Social Security Michael J. Astrue, Commissioner of Social Security, today announced the agency is providing helpful health care information and website links to the more than three million individuals who apply each year for Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) disability benefits. ...
  4. Information to Over 3 Million Disability Applicants Each Year – Medicare Card, Social Security to Provide Helpful Health Care Commissioner of Social Security, today announced the agency is providing helpful health care information and website links to the more than three million individuals who apply each year for Social Security and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) disability benefits. The website links take disability applicants to two U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) websites – www.healthfinder.gov where they will find information and tools to help them better understand and cope with their conditions; and www.healthfinder.gov/rxdrug where they may be able to get help paying for prescription drugs....
  5. Social Security Hearings Backlog Down Michael J. Astrue, Commissioner of Social Security, today announced that for the first time since 1999, the agency has ended the year with fewer disability hearings pending than in the prior year. Social Security ended fiscal year (FY) 2009 with 722,822 hearings pending compared to 760,813 hearings pending at the start of the year, a reduction of more than 37,000 cases. Over the same period, the average processing time for these cases improved from 514 days in FY 2008 to 491 in FY 2009....
  6. Mounting Disability Claims – Social Security Help Michael J. Astrue, Commissioner of Social Security, today announced that the agency’s first Extended Service Team (EST) is open for business in Little Rock, Arkansas. The Little Rock EST will make disability decisions for state Disability Determinations Services (DDSs) that are most adversely affected by the flood of new initial disability claims resulting from the economic downturn and from counterproductive furloughs of employees at the state level...
  7. Social Security Helps States with Mounting Disability Claims Commissioner of Social Security, today announced that the agency’s first Extended Service Team (EST) is open for business in Little Rock, Arkansas. The Little Rock EST will make disability decisions for state Disability Determinations Services (DDSs) that are most adversely affected by the flood of new initial disability claims resulting from the economic downturn and from counterproductive furloughs of employees at the state level. Later this year, Social Security will open additional ESTs in Madison, Mississippi; Roanoke, Virginia; and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The ESTs are in states that have a history of high quality and productivity, as well as the capacity to hire and train significant numbers of additional employees. “The strategy behind ESTs builds on our success with National Hearing Centers, where cases are handled electronically from all over the country,” Commissioner Astrue said. “These centralized units have reduced the hearings backlog and improved processing times at some of the hardest-hit hearing offices. This approach clearly works and extending it in this way can help us meet the challenge of unprecedented growth in our disability workloads.” Social Security expects to receive more than 3.3 million applications for disability benefits this fiscal year (FY), about 700,000 more than in FY...
  8. Social Security Files Statement of Interest Michael J. Astrue, Commissioner of Social Security, today announced that the Department of Justice, on behalf of the Social Security Administration, has filed a “Statement of Interest” inUnion of American Physicians and Dentists v. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor of California , which is currently pending in a state trial court in California. The Union of American Physicians and Dentists includes employees of the California Disability Determination Services Division (DDSD), Department of Social Services, who evaluate Social Security Disability and Supplemental Security Income claims. The Federal government fully pays for the salaries and overhead costs for these employees....
  9. $550 million budget deficit will not slow down the development of SustiNet development of SustiNet...
  10. MEDICARE – CMS LAUNCHES FIFTH ANNUAL MEDICARE HEALTH CARE PROVIDER SATISFACTION SURVEY The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has launched the fifth annual health care provider satisfaction survey of the Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) contractors that process and pay more than $370 billion in Medicare claims each year....
  11. Economic Recovery Act Payment for 2010 Needed With consumer prices down over the past year, monthly Social Security and Supplemental Security Income benefits for more than 57 million Americans will not automatically increase in 2010. This will be the first year without an automatic Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) since they went into effect in 1975....
  12. Medicare Card and Social Security Card Number Information 2011 Will my Medicare Part B premiums increase in 2011? Most Medicare beneficiaries will continue to pay the same $96.40 or $110.50 Part B premium amount in 2011. Beneficiaries who currently have the Social Security Administration (SSA) withhold their Part B premium and have incomes of $85,000 or less ($170,000 or less for joint filers) will […]...
  13. Social Security Holds Disability Hearing Michael J. Astrue, Commissioner of Social Security, today hosted the agency’s fifth public hearing on Compassionate Allowances. Commissioner Astrue was joined by Philip Wang, M.D., Dr. P.H., National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, and Social Security executives. They heard testimony from some of the nation's leading experts on schizophrenia about possible methods of identifying and implementing Compassionate Allowances for young adults with schizophrenia....
  14. MedicareCard, Newer Heart Surgery, Infants Offers First-Year Survival Benefit over Traditional Procedure Infants born with a severely underdeveloped heart who undergo a newer surgical procedure are more likely to survive their first year and not require a heart transplant than those who have a more traditional surgical procedure, according to a report by researchers supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), which is part […]...
  15. Legislature passed a bill requiring managed care organizations to remit direct payments to out-of-network providers Legislature passed a bill requiring managed care organizations to remit direct payments to out-of-network providers...