Cassidy reintroduces bill to reform Medicaid with spending controls

U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) reintroduced a bill to rein in costly Medicaid financing through spending controls, value-based initiatives and fraud reduction.

The Medicaid Accountability and Care (MAC) Act would establish a federal base payment for each Medicaid beneficiary, and that base payment would be adjusted to reflect specific factors that impact the cost of care.

“As a doctor, treating patients in a public hospital for the uninsured for 25 years, I’ve seen that Medicaid offers the illusion of coverage without the power of access,” Cassidy said.

To reduce current disparities in state payments, states would be reimbursed under a per-beneficiary payment for each of the major beneficiary groups: aged, blind and disabled, children and adults.

“Modernizing how Medicaid is financed can incentivize more efficient, effective and patient-centered care,” Cassidy said. “The MAC Act does this.”

Additionally, the MAC Act would enable cost-sharing with fewer restrictions than outlined in current law, giving states the flexibility to develop enforcement mechanisms that promote value and reverse over-utilization.

In January, Cassidy took to the Senate floor to highlight the importance of Medicaid financing reform.

“… In my state, like most others, Medicaid pays beneath physicians’ costs of seeing a patient,” Cassidy said. “It is, to paraphrase St. Paul, the illusion of coverage without the power of access.”