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The state approved spending $550 million on non-citizen health
care subsidies for the fiscal year that started July 1. Part of
that were rules the Pritzker administration implemented to have
copays paid by non-citizens for things like hospital stays and
doctors visits. The policy had co-pays of $100 for emergency
room visits and $250 for inpatient hospitalizations.
During a Joint Committee on Administrative Rules hearing
Tuesday, Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services
staff attorney Omar Shaker said copays for hospital visits are
on hold to refine the rules to capture more federal tax dollars.
“And I believe that there is some type of issue or conflict
within our general programming that would potentially, if left
untouched, could jeopardize our matching funds,” Shaker said.
“We decided to suspend it and instruct the providers that if
there were any copays that were taken, then they need to repay
them because HFS would be paying the full amount.”
Shaker went further into the minutia of the copay dilemma.
“There is a federal program that does offer some matching,
however the rule that we have deals with those circumstances
where an individual receives attention at an emergency room but
is not covered under that federal program, then those
circumstances, the copay would be applied,” Shaker said. “They
only deal with hospital visits. Visits to providers and dentists
and pharmacists are still covered entirely by the program.”
Legislators requested more information on how much taxpayer
savings the copays would produce and a timeline for when the
copays would be implemented.
“I don’t have the exact numbers but that is definitely something
I can advise the committee,” Shaker said.
JCAR meets again next month.
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