ENROLLED
2019 Regular Session
HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOL UTION NO. 43
BY REPRESENTATIVE BACALA
A CONCURRENT RESOL UTION
To urge and request the secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health to reconsider the
department's election to exclude roughly two-thirds of the state's Medicaid enrollees
from quarterly income eligibility verification.
WHEREAS, Medicaid is the largest expenditure in Louisiana's state budget; and
WHEREAS, from state fiscal year 2009-2010 to state fiscal year 2017-2018, the total
state budget grew by nineteen percent while spending on the state Medicaid program grew
by one hundred twenty-four percent; and
WHEREAS, pursuant to Louisiana's expansion of Medicaid eligibility by executive
order in 2016, over five hundred thousand people have been newly enrolled in the state
Medicaid program, far exceeding projections by the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH)
of expansion-related enrollment growth; and
WHEREAS, cost containment in Medicaid is an urgent priority of the legislature; and
WHEREAS, in a report issued in November, 2018, the legislative auditor found that
the process LDH uses to determine the eligibility of the Medicaid expansion population is
inadequate, and that Louisiana's Medicaid expansion program may have spent as much as
eighty-five million dollars on ineligible enrollees; and
WHEREAS, the federal Medicaid agency described the findings presented in this
report as "deeply troubling" and the agency's administrator indicated that the federal
government could seek repayment of money that the state misspent; and
WHEREAS, using random sampling, the legislative auditor recently found that
roughly eight percent of Medicaid enrollees were ineligible for benefits; and
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WHEREAS, similarly, in a recent quarterly review of roughly one-third of the
Medicaid population for income eligibility verification purposes, LDH found that
approximately eight percent of Medicaid enrollees were ineligible for benefits; and
WHEREAS, if the remaining two-thirds of Medicaid enrollees were subject to the
same quarterly eligibility review, it is likely that a similar percentage would be found
ineligible for benefits; however, due to the department's election to provide extended periods
of continuous eligibility for the persons comprising this group (mainly pregnant women and
children) through its voluntary enrollment in a maintenance of effort option offered by the
federal Medicaid agency, no member of this population of over one million one hundred
thousand enrollees is subject to quarterly eligibility verification.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby
urge and request the secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health to reconsider the
department's election to exclude roughly two-thirds of the state's Medicaid enrollees from
quarterly income eligibility verification.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that on or before September 1, 2019, the Louisiana
Department of Health shall submit to the House Committee on Appropriations, the Senate
Committee on Finance, the House Committee on Health and Welfare, and the Senate
Committee on Health and Welfare a report detailing the actions it has taken, or will take, to
subject to quarterly income eligibility verification all Medicaid enrollees for whom such
eligibility verification is allowed by federal policy.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to the
secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health.
SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE
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