Ulster County News

FROM: ULSTER COUNTY PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE

DATE: January 16, 2004 

Ulster County Legislative Chairman Richard A. Gerentine has received a copy of an Interim Report put forward by Governor Pataki’s Health Care Reform Working Group Task Force. In this initial report, the Working Group addresses key areas such as long- term care, certificate of need, local share of Medicaid costs, and prescription drug costs.

County governments have complained for decades that the cost of the Medicaid program puts significant pressures on local property taxes. The Task Force has put forth proposals that have the potential to generate significant federal, state and local savings in the future. Contingent upon the savings from the implementation of the long-term care proposals outlined in this interim report, the Working Group recommended that the State relieve the counties of their Medicaid long-term care costs.

The report’s major recommendations include changing the design and delivery of state and Medicaid-funded long term care programs by implementing NY ANSWERS, which creates a single point-of-entry into the long-term care system and focuses on providing in community settings; modifying the Medicaid eligibility requirements for long-term care by closing eligibility loopholes; expanding and improving long-term care insurance options by stimulating the marketplace; enrolling dual eligibles in a new program, Medicaid Advantage, a hybrid product of Medicare + Choice and Medicaid Managed Care that would include long-term care services in the benefits package; creating a new nursing home model; developing enhanced home and community-based services through demonstration projects.

" I commend Governor Pataki for his initiatives and his aggressiveness to put forth these Medicaid reform programs to help all the county taxpayers throughout New York State. Hopefully our representatives in Albany will work together towards a positive solution, so that our system will operate in a more efficient manner," stated Chairman Gerentine.