Gov. Charlie Baker’s budget | Massachusetts Medicaid

In a briefing with Secretary of Health and Human Services Marylou Sudders and other top health administration officials, officials said this practice of delaying Medicaid payments has happened in every administration since 2004, when Mitt Romney was governor. In the 2016 budget, $340 million of the so-called “cash management” was inherited from Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick‘s administration, while Baker’s administration pushed another $116 million in costs from year to year.

Baker spokesman Tim Buckley said the administration hopes to limit the practice in future years. “The administration will continue to develop structural reforms to right-size the state budget while pursuing policies to promote economic growth, reducing the need for additional cash management,” Buckley said.

The other big part of the savings comes from “redetermination.” Baker anticipates saving $400 million in Medicaid costs – of which $210 million comes from the state budget and the rest from federal money – by requiring everyone enrolled in Medicaid to prove they are still eligible.

http://www.masslive.com/politics/index.ssf/2015/03/what_does_gov_charlie_bakers_b.html

Charles Duane “Charlie” Baker, Jr. (born November 13, 1956) is an American businessman and the 72nd and current Governor of Massachusetts, having been sworn into office on January 8, 2015. He was a cabinet official under two Massachusetts governors, spent ten years as CEO of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and was also the Republican nominee for Governor of Massachusetts in his unsuccessful bid in 2010.