Leading
lawmakers want representatives of the state DHHR to appear before them at a
meeting next month to further explain a proposal to use a broker to handle
non-emergency medical transports across the state.
House
Minority Leader Tim Armstead, R-Kanawha, raised a number of questions during a
meeting Wednesday morning of the legislature’s Joint Committee on Government
and Finance.
Del.
Armstead said he’s heard from county ambulance services who are concerned they
will lose some of the transports and thus lose the money they use to help with
their emergency responses.
The
DHHR has already received bids from three out-of-state brokers interested in
providing the service. The agency is currently reviewing the bids. DHHR
Medicaid Commissioner Nancy Atkins told another group of lawmakers later in the
day Wednesday using a broker would save waste in the Medicaid system and
provide the best non-emergency transportation for Medicaid recipients.
“The
intent is to save money for Medicaid, coordinate that care a little more and to
make sure the Medicaid members have adequate and safe transportation,” Atkins
said.
DHHR
Deputy Commissioner of Finance Tina Bailes said the proposal includes
protections that guarantee local ambulance authorities will have the
opportunity to contract with the broker and receive the standard Medicaid
reimbursement rate.
“Our
proposal says the broker must offer those contracts to those entities,” Bailes
said. “So it would be up to the entity or agency to contract with that broker.”
The
interim legislative committee agreed to formally ask the DHHR not to make any
movement on the bids until the agency comes before the committee at its next
meeting scheduled in early January.
An EMS coalition held a rally on the steps of the state
capitol last month
“It (the broker system) would
cut our non-emergency trucks and it has the potential to affect our emergency
trucks in the rural area,” Trish Watson of the Lincoln County Emergency
Medical Services said at that rally.
