American Samoa’s 100-percent federal Medicaid match will be extended for another eight weeks.
KHJ News Washington DC correspondent Matt Kaye reports, a stop-gap spending bill to fund the government, includes the key provision…
The provision in the Continuing Budget Resolution effectively erases for now, the “Medicaid cliff” of September 30th, the end of the federal fiscal year…when a temporary 100-percent federal Medicaid match for the territories, was set to expire.
Section 1302 of the bill to keep the government funded ‘til Congress can finish regular spending bills, extends through November 21st, the current 100-percent Federal Medical Assistance Percentage, or “F-MAP” for the islands.
Doing so, averts a sharp cut in critical Medicaid funding for American Samoa, and also gives House and Senate lawmakers more time to agree on a compromise Medicaid reform bill for the islands.
A House committee-passed bill would provide full Medicaid reimbursement for American Samoa…and then, nearly full coverage…over the next few years.”
Original cosponsor Congresswoman Aumua Amata Radewagen says it will also free up “millions” of dollars for LBJ Hospital improvements, expansion and better care.
All this by further extending the temporary 100% federal match, before gradually stepping down the boost in future years.
The House bill would provide American Samoa as much as 84-million Medicaid dollars a year, more than double ASG’s request at a June hearing…though final details of the bill must be agreed to with the Senate.
Still, the latest developments including a House vote later today on the stop-gap bill, will come as welcome news for American Samoa, whose Medicaid Director Sandra King Young gave emotional testimony twice in recent months that lives were at stake without more federal help.
