Those employees are covered via the state’s self-insured program administered by
groups such as Cigna and HealthLink, CMS spokeswoman Meredith Krantz said
Wednesday.
About another 213,000 people are covered in fully insured programs through
agencies including Health Alliance, Coventry HMO and BlueAdvantage, Krantz said
in an email to Illinois Network.
Those participants will be required to pay only copayments at time of service.
The fully-insured or managed-care plan providers made the decision to pay now
and wait for state funds to come through, Strantz said, adding that was not by
state request.
Krantz said CMS has exhausted its fiscal year 2015 revenues and, without an
appropriation in place for fiscal year 2016, which began July 1, cannot make
provider payments.
“Without a budget in place, there is no mechanism to pay healthcare providers,”
Krantz said.
State employees first learned of the medical payment problem after CMS on Sept.
9 posted a memo on one of its Web pages.
First-term Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner and legislative Democrats remain locked
in a budget impasse with the state now more than 75 days into fiscal year 2016.
Rauner complains the Democrats have sent him a spending plan that’s $4 billion
heavier in spending than estimated revenue.
Democrats complain Rauner and the GOP have been unwilling to work with them on a
plan until the governor gets movement on his own agenda items, which Democrats
do not consider directly related to the annual budget.
In the meantime, without a budget illinois is spending at a clip that could see
fiscal year 2016 expenditures outstrip revenue by $5 billion or more.
The only large piece of the fiscal year 2016 budget made law this spring was the
budget for primary and secondary education. The rest of the spending is is
attributable to items covered by continuing appropriations, such as debt service
and pension payments, and to spending demanded by consent decrees and court
orders.
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State Rep. Raymond Poe, R- Springfield, said his insurance is
through one of the self-insured plans, and he may soon feel the
financial bite, as he’s headed to Houston, Texas, for a checkup with
oncologists. Poe has been battling myelodysplastic syndrome, or MDS,
a slow-growing cancer,
“I know first-hand what an interruption in service will be,” Poe
said. The state’s financial crisis also disturbs him because of the
high number of state employees and retirees in his district, he
said.
Poe said there’s plenty of blame to go around, and both parties need
to get to the table and work out a budget deal.
“It’s getting past the point of being excusable, he said. “We need
to move forward … (and) if that means locking us all in a room until
we settle this budget, fine.”
State Rep. Mary Flowers, D-Chicago, put the onus on Rauner
administration.
“I think it’s, unfortunately, the governor really just trying to put
pressure on us to do what he wants us to do by not paying our
bills.”
Flowers, a longtime proponent of a single-payer healthcare system,
said the current situation is another example of why the
single-payer method needs further exploration.
Matt Murphy of Palatine, deputy GOP leader in the Senate, said
Democrats in general and specifically House Speaker Michael Madigan,
D-Chicago, need to accept their share of the responsibility for the
budget stalemate.
“Sometimes when two people can’t get along, it really is just one of
them,” said Murphy.
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