By Steve Klamkin WPRO News
Governor Gina Raimondo Thursday named a 28-member ‘working group’ to develop ways to cut costs and improve medical services to Rhode Island’s Medicaid program.
Raimondo said healthcare services in Rhode Island are among the finest in the world, but that they are often uncoordinated and fragmented.
“The brutal fact is we have a Medicaid system in this state which isn’t working,” Raimondo said as she signed an executive order establishing the working group.
“There’s some good work being done, to be sure… but, we have to do much better.”
Aides say that the announcement was under development before the powerful House Speaker, Nicholas Mattiello balked at Raimondo’s request for a $50 million so-called “placeholder” in the budget that she is preparing to submit next month to the General Assembly.
Raimondo said reinventing Medicaid is one way she can help the state avert an estimated $500 million deficit by 2019.
One of the two co-chairs of the working group, Dennis Keefe, said he believes changes can be made and savings effected without requiring any new money for Medicaid.
“I actually think we can improve care, improve our counts, improve quality, improve access and actually reduce the cost curve going forward, because I really believe there’s enough money in the system,” said Keefe, President and Chief Executive Officer of Care New England, which operates four of the state’s larges hospitals, including Women & Infants, Kent, Butler and Memorial Hospitals.
Others named to the group include the chief executives of the two largest health insurers in Rhode Island, Peter Andruszkiewicz of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Rhode Island and Stephen Farrell of United Healthcare of New England, and Helena Foulkes, Executive Vice President of CVS Health and President of CVS pharmacy.
Aides to the governor said the working group plans its first meeting next week, followed by a public listening session in Woonsocket.
Under the executive order signed by Raimondo, the group is to submit a report containing cost cutting recommendations for the Fiscal Year 2016 budget by April 30, and will conclude its work recommending long-term changes no later than July 1.
