When Director of the Medicaid Office Sandra King Young met with Hawaii hospitals last month it was the third meeting to try and reinstate the medical referral program to Hawaii, during the Lolo Lemanu administration.
King Young met with officials from Hawaii Pacific Health Network, network (Straub and Kapiolani) and Queens and according to her assessment the reception was very positive unlike the last two times she met with Hawaii health care providers over the past 7 years.
The reason according to King Young is because she was able to provide the Hawaii hospital with 2 years of good credit in New Zealand and the news that American Samoa’s annual Medicaid block grant has been increased to $84 million.
As we’ve reported in the past, the reason why local patients were referred to New Zealand is because American Samoa damaged its credit in Hawaii because of non-payment of bills in past administrations.
Because of that, Hawaii hospitals refused to accept patients from American Samoa without ASG putting up front $10 million in funding to draw from.
Currently, LBJ Hospital refers patients to Hawaii but it only helps with the airfare. It does not pay for medical care like Medicaid does in NZ.
King Young explained that it has always been the goal of this administration to re-establish ASG’s credit and pursue an increase to our Medicaid block grant so that the Hawaii referral program can be resumed, given our ties to Hawaii.
The Director said it’s a difficult process and it may take weeks to reach an agreement if at all.
For now her office continues to work with Hawaii health care providers to give them all the data they need to see if this is doable.
She will be meeting with them again over the next several weeks.
“We have to negotiate terms acceptable to Hawaii providers and to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS.),” said King Young.
Asked when the Hawaii referral program is likely to be reinstated the Medicaid Director said she doesn’t know when and if but assured her office will continue to do its best to try and make it happen.
“We have proven we can pay our bills in NZ with proper financial control and program management so that really helps,” said King Young.
“If we are successful in reinstating our program in Hawaii, it will be on a very limited basis, because of the limitations of our local match and the high costs of medical care in Hawaii. All we can do is try.”
