WICS Live: Around the States

Colorado: Governor Announces Medicaid Rate Cuts: Governor Bill Ritter (D) announced the cuts Tuesday, August 18th, reducing rates by 2.5% for providers of behavioral health and developmental disability services and by 1.5 % for medical providers to help close a $318 million budget shortfall. Such cuts should save the state $34.2 million in the fiscal year that ends June 30, 2010. The latest reductions follow a 2% rate cut for Medicaid providers on July 1st that was used to bridge a $1.4 billion budget gap that had existed previously. The Legislature also passed a bill creating a new fee on hospital beds beginning this fiscal year that is expected to allow more uninsured Coloradans to receive health coverage and to increase the provider reimbursement rates slightly.