May 15, 2008 6:37 pm US/Central
State Owes Millions In Backlogged Medicaid Bills
Gov. Wants Health Care Expansion Despite Unpaid Bills
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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Most patients at the Haymarket Center, which helps drug-addicted pregnant women and young mothers, use Medicaid. The center is struggling after thousands of dollars in bills have gone unpaid by the state.
CBS
Gov. Rod Blagojevich continues to push an expansion of state-subsidized health insurance, despite a new audit that found at least $1.5 billion in unpaid bills and the system is plagued by mismanagement.
CBS 2 Political Editor Mike Flannery reports among the health care programs affected by the state's delinquency in paying its bills is a treatment program for pregnant drug abusers. The Haymarket Center recently had to wait more than three months for payment from the State of Illinois, and in the meanwhile had to find $600,000 elsewhere to maintain its mission of saving infants from being born drug-addicted.
"I don't understand how we can do business with the State if we don't get paid on time," said Anthony Cole of Haymarket Center.
Illinois Auditor General William Holland found Medicaid service providers have reason for concern. The Blagojevich administration had an average $1.5 billion in unpaid bills stacked up at the end of each of the last three years, and it's getting worse.
The governor's aides said the cash shortage means they now take 70 days to pay a typical bill; previously, it was 54 days.
They blamed the general assembly, adding that the budget mess is no reason for Blagojevich to stop expanding state-subsidized health insurance to another 28,000 Illinoisans.
"These are people who don't get your opportunity to get health insurance from their employer. Twenty to 25 percent of people today don't get health care from their employer," said Barry Maram of the Department of Health and Human Services.
"They can't just create programs without legislative approval. They cannot continue to spend when they're not paying their existing bills," said Laurence Msall of the Civic Federation. "They cannot ignore the fact that we have $44 billion on unfunded pension liabilities for which the state is not dealing."
State Comptroller Dan Hynes, an outspoken critic of the governor, pointed to the near-collapse of Blue Island's St. Francis Hospital as just one consequence of the Medicaid payment crisis.
"It is appalling," Hynes said. "Expanding health care programs when we can't afford the ones we currently have. It puts everybody at risk."
The Blagojevich administration disputes the Medicaid mismanagement allegations, adding that they've implemented cost-cutting measures saving Medicaid about $50 million.
Maram claimed that's more than enough to pay for the expansion the governor ordered, and said they have no obligation to use the money to reduce the huge budget deficit.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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