May 23, 2005 -- New Commission to Work on Strengthening Medicaid

U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt announced May 20 that he has established an advisory commission that will “help identify the reforms necessary to stabilize and strengthen Medicaid so it can continue to serve our most vulnerable citizens.” The Medicaid program in its present form is “rigidly inflexible and inefficient” and not financially sustainable, Leavitt said. The commission is expected to recommend ways for the program to achieve $10 billion in savings over the next five years, while continuing to provide long-term care “to those who need it” and improving the quality of care and beneficiary satisfaction. In a series of two reports, the commission will also consider how to address the issues confronting Medicaid under three possible scenarios--  that Congress will decide either to continue, increase, or reduce current federal spending for the program. In any case, Leavitt said, it’s assumed that the federal-state match for Medicaid will continue. A full copy of the commission’s charter is available at www.cms.hhs.gov/faca/mc/default.asp.