Did the state violate the Constitution by kicking Aroostook County man off MaineCare?
Posted April 19, 2012, at 1:22 p.m.
PORTLAND, Maine — At the end of the year, Fort Fairfield resident Hans Bruns will be eligible to regain the MaineCare benefits he lost last October.
He could be dead by then.
Bruns, 65, was diagnosed earlier this year with adenoid cystic carcinoma, a rare form of cancer. He needs radiation and chemotherapy. He needs medication to numb the pain that he says makes even simple tasks like eating meals excruciating. He needs health care.
But for that last six months, Bruns has been able to access only emergency care. He, along with as many as 500 others, received a letter from Maine’s Department of Health and Human Services last fall explaining that he no longer was eligible for subsidized health insurance.
“Your coverage is being reduced because state law has changed,” the letter to Bruns reads. “This decision is based on MaineCare Eligibility Manual, Part 2, Section 3. This rule explains that some legal immigrants will only get MaineCare emergency benefits.”
That law change was part of the state’s biennial budget that passed in June 2011 and is one part of Gov. Paul LePage’s administration’s effort to reduce the number of people collecting MaineCare benefits.
DHHS advocate fears crisis among adults who need care
Posted April 20, 2012, at 7:19 p.m
AUGUSTA, Maine — A state advocate is warning that overspending by the Department of Health and Human Services is leaving people with intellectual disabilities no place to turn in a crisis.
A DHHS account that pays for residential services for adults with intellectual disabilities and autism is projected to run into the red by $4.3 million this quarter. More than 600 people covered by the state’s Medicaid program are already on a waiting list for those services.
Without resources to take those recipients off the waiting list and place them into assisted living or other support facilities, the state is leaving people with intellectual disabilities in the lurch, said Richard Estabrook, head of DHHS’ office of advocacy.
G.A.O. Calls Test Project by Medicare Costly Waste
By ROBERT PEAR
WASHINGTON — Medicare is wasting more than $8 billion on an experimental program that rewards providers of mediocre health care and is unlikely to produce useful results, federal investigators say in a new report.
The report, to be issued Monday by the Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan investigative arm of Congress, urges the Obama administration to cancel the program, which pays bonuses tohealth insurance companies caring for millions of Medicare beneficiaries.
Administration officials, however, defended the project and said they would not cancel it because it could improve the quality of care for older Americans.
Romney's healthcare plan may be more revolutionary than Obama's
Instead of getting coverage at work, more Americans would shop for it on their own. That would mean more choices — and more risk.
By Noam N. Levey, Washington Bureau
April 23, 2012
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