In recent times, Medicaid applicants have been experiencing delays in receiving Medicaid determinations. These delays impose real challenges to the Medicaid applicants as well as to their healthcare providers. The Health Care Association of New Jersey ( HCANJ) a non profit organization that represents long term care providers and the individuals they serve, recognized this challenge in a very real way. HCANJ has been instrumental in bringing this challenge to the front of the state assembly. As a result of their efforts, a bill was proposed named “Uncompensated Pending Medicaid Beneficiary Payment Relief Act,” (A-3928). This legislation dictates that should ninety days pass after a Medicaid application is submitted without a Medicaid determination, Medicaid would be required to grant payments to nursing homes for up to fifty percent of the estimated amount due for uncompensated services.
“Protracted delays in Medicaid application approvals force individual nursing facilities to carry hundreds of thousands and some even a million dollars or more worth of uncompensated care,” said HCANJ Vice President and lobbyist John Indyk. “It is a cash flow problem that makes this legislation a top priority for HCANJ.”
Senior Planning Services has helped countless individuals in obtaining Medicaid eligibility and have processed thousand of applications in the State of New Jersey alone. The data that Senior Planning Services has accumulated depicts the everyday challenges that Medicaid applicants face when applying for Medicaid benefits. It is for this reason that Neil Stern represented Senior Planning Services and gave testimony at the Assembly Health and Senior Services Committee hearing. Aside from Mr. Stern’s testimony, the committee also heard testimony from various leaders in the healthcare industry. Senior Planning Services is proud to continue playing a lead role in making things better for Medicaid applicants and healthcare providers.
If you would like to read a press release on the hearing that is posted on The Assembly Democratic Office Website, click Here.
All content in this post is for informational purposes only.