Mass. officials anticipate $500M Medicaid funding shortfall

BOSTON – Massachusetts is anticipating a $500 million Medicaid-funding shortfall once the federal government’s fiscal calendar comes to a close Sept. 30, the Boston Business Journal reported.
The publication said that Bay State officials confirmed the shortfall this week, saying it is a “preliminary figure” that will not be finalized until at least Oct. 1.
Spokeswomen in the state’s offices of Administration & Finance, and Health and Human Services described the anticipated shortfall as a “cash-management issue” that will see unpaid Medicaid expenses for the state’s fiscal year that ended June 30 pushed into the current budget cycle, which began July 1.
The $500 million estimate is roughly twice as large as the $280 million shortfall recorded at the end of fiscal 2013 and marks the latest incremental increase to a Medicaid-funding deficiency created as a result of the state’s financial crisis following the last recession.
The state expects to pay down the deficit by Dec. 31, but that will create a “$500 million hit” to the current fiscal budget that sets the stage for another Medicaid shortfall in fiscal 2016.
State officials blamed the deficit and its year-over-year growth on expansion in the state’s Medicaid population which made the program’s annual budgeting process difficult, as well as unspecified “unforeseen events” that contributed to higher-than-anticipated costs for the state.

No posts to display