There are some fairly interesting issues before the Health Finance Commission. I don’t know that I’ll have time to go back and really analyze it, but the minutes from the 7/5/05 meeting are linked above. (I presume the minutes don’t get posted until they are approved by the Commission, meaning a month or more lag time. I don’t suppose there is any way around that.)
Quite a bit of testimony from FSSA Secretary Roob. Also there is a link to the KPMG Audit of FSSA (Looong PDF document). Among other things, Sec’y Roob commented about “staff apathy and a lack of cooperation in investigating crimes within the agency.” (The flogging will continue until staff morale improves.) He also wants to reduce the number of FSSA operated hospitals from 7 to 1 but still have FSSA fund the other hospitals. (You know, if I wanted to funnel state money to people I liked without the bother of helping people and without liability for substandard care, that’s probably how I’d go about it. I’m not saying that’s what Mr. Roob has in mind, just saying what I’d do if I lost my scruples.) He wants to cut the annual Medicaid increase from 10% to 5%. “Secretary Roob stated that FSSA is going to alter the manner in which health care is delivered in the state. FSSA will be a health care financing agency.” (Again, see my comments about how I’d go about funneling money if I ever became a cartoonish supervillain.)
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