Issue Position: Medicaid Reform

Issue Position

Beginning with the Southern Tier Organization to Reform Medicaid (STORM) spearheaded by Chemung County Executive Tom Santulli -- who for so long was one of New York State's most respected and effective leaders in this arena of reform -- our region has been on the leading edge of the fight to reform New York State's system of Medicaid.

I was proud to serve as a member of STORM back then and I have continued this commitment to Medicaid reform throughout my own legislative service.

It's a system that now costs state and local taxpayers more than $70 billion annually. Yet it remains a system plagued by unacceptable abuse, fraud and waste.

I agree, wholeheartedly, that we need to take care of people in our community and region that need the care Medicaid was intended to provide.

By some accounts, however, today 1 out of 3 New Yorkers now receives some type of Medicaid benefit -- a rate of growth which is, very simply, unsustainable.

Medicaid needs to be reformed to provide essential care -- but to provide it cost effectively and without being the abused, mismanaged and overwhelmingly expensive system of health care that it's become in New York State at the expense of taxpayers.

The cost of Medicaid is the single largest unfunded state mandate on counties and local property taxpayers. It's an unfair and unreasonable cost that overwhelms finances and places some counties on the brink of bankruptcy.

If we're going to get serious about state spending control, we have to finally get serious about Medicaid reform. It's that simple. We've taken some important and meaningful steps since 2011 -- including a state takeover of the growth in local Medicaid costs -- but it's time to go even further, which is why I have:

co-sponsored legislation, together with local Assemblymen Phil Palmesano and Chris Friend, to begin a full state takeover of local Medicaid costs. The idea behind this move is that if it's the state's responsibility, then the state will become more aggressive at fighting fraud and waste, and even more intent on redesigning and reducing the cost of the system;
sponsored legislation to encourage the more widespread use of modern, fraud detection technology like the software developed and continually fine-tuned by the Horseheads-based Salient Corporation. This Salient technology lays out a blueprint for effectively detecting and preventing fraud, inefficiency, mismanagement, overutilization and waste;
encouraged the reinstatement of the eligibility requirements for face-to-face interviews, finger-imaging and asset tests for Medicaid applicants that were once conducted by counties but that were eliminated as part the 2009-10 state budget; and
sponsored legislation to restore the incentive for localities to pursue Medicaid fraud investigations.

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