Advocates pushed for greater preventative health care for the state's poor and elderly — services they claimed would save money in the long run — even as Gov. Charlie Baker continued to vow that "reforms and initiatives" for the money-hemorrhaging MassHealth program have "gotta happen."
"The lens has to widen," said Al Norman of Mass Home Care, which released a new report yesterday. "The health care system in this state has been too narrowly focused on medical care and needs to take a broader look."
The organization's report recommends the state provide MassHealth patients with "short-term coaching" for a month after hospital stays — things like ensuring they take prescribed medications and have enough money to take care of themselves — which would save money by avoiding costly repeat hospital stays or even more expensive nursing home care.
"We feel the state has not done a good job of coordinating that care," said Norman. "I believe the Baker administration knows that there's a lot of inefficiency and a lack of coordination in services for the elderly and disabled and I believe they will be receptive. How far they are willing to go ... I guess we're going to find out."
Speaking to the New England Council yesterday, Baker vowed a series of "reforms and initiatives" to MassHealth — though he didn't mention specifics, suggesting the plan is still being worked on. He blamed the runaway cost of temporary Medicaid — the emergency insurance provided to people who couldn't sign up for Obamacare last year because of the state's costly website failure — for a 13-14 percent increase in MassHealth spending. That's a $13 billion total price tag this year, representing the largest piece of the state budget, said Baker.
"In this budget and future budgets, the administration is looking for reforms to MassHealth that will have the smallest impact on the fewest people," a Baker administration official told the Herald. "That's the discussion that's happening now."
Dr. Richard Pieters, the president of the Massachusetts Medical Society, said doctors already experience roadblocks with the current MassHealth setup and don't want more of them.
Just this week, he said MassHealth required an extra — and, he claimed, unnecessary — layer of authorization for his female cancer patient who lost her hair after undergoing radiation, just so she could be covered for the cost of a wig.
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