State Rep. Garcia Wilburn offers cost-saving amendment to Medicaid bill

Submitted by Office of State Rep. Garcia Wilburn

State Rep. Victoria Garcia Wilburn (D-Fishers) offered an amendment on Monday to Senate Bill 2 aiming to lower costs for Indiana’s Medicaid program without compromising Hoosiers’ access to health care.

Garcia Wilburn’s amendment would have prevented the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration (FSSA) from hiring a third party to verify eligibility for Medicaid’s Healthy Indiana Plan (HIP). In 2007, Indiana’s third-party contract with IBM to privatize and automate welfare program applications resulted in millions of lost state dollars and delayed services for Hoosiers in need.

The amendment was rejected by the majority.

Garcia Wilburn released the following statement:

“I am disappointed that the House did not join me in learning from our state’s past mistakes today. As FSSA Director Mitch Roob shared earlier this year with the State Budget Committee, ‘Twenty years from now, when I leave, my goal would be to make Medicaid boring again. To take it off the front pages, to take it off your top concern.’

“My amendment to SB 2 would have ‘made Medicaid boring again’ – we don’t want another IBM fiasco in which the state is in headline after headline for a third-party company it’s contracted with mishandling our Medicaid eligibility verifications. FSSA should handle this in-house, where they can control how the work is getting done and ensure it’s happening in a timely manner, especially when we are increasing the number of eligibility checks each HIP enrollee has to undergo from once a year to four times a year. Who’s to say we won’t contract with another company that botches the job, thus costing taxpayers money and keeping Hoosiers from their health care?

“The Hoosiers who rely upon HIP deserve reliable and consistent service, and taxpayers deserve to know that their hard-earned money is being spent well. I have serious concerns that SB 2 will get in the way of this. Regardless, I will continue looking for ways to improve health care in our state and continue to offer common-sense solutions on the House floor.”