State Sen. Charles Fuschillo, a Republican of Merrick, said the Medicaid reforms, designed to reduce local property taxes, have resulted in significantly higher savings than anticipated. "The state Legislature enacted significant reforms to Medicaid over the last two years to help alleviate the financial burden on local governments and reduce property taxes for homeowners," said Fuschillo. "These reforms, which included a cap on costs to local governments, new accountability standards and a preferred drug list, have generated far more savings than we expected. I urge Nassau and Suffolk counties to pass these additional savings on to taxpayers."
It's estimated that the counties will receive an additional $46 million in combined Medicaid savings for 2006 and 2007. These funds are on top of the over $134 million that the two counties were projected to receive in combined savings over the same period. The counties have already realized a combined $6.45 million in savings in 2005, when the reforms first took effect.
Additionally, the Legislature enacted a plan to combat Medicaid fraud and create a Medicaid inspector general. The anti-fraud plan fights fraud and abuse at every step of the process, from billing and pre-payment review to investigation, civil recovery and criminal prosecution of Medicaid thieves. The plan could save taxpayers billions of dollars that are lost through fraud.
In 2004, the state also began a takeover of the local share of the Family Health Plus program to provide additional savings to local
governments and property taxpayers. For more information about these tax-saving initiatives, visit Fuschillo's Web site at www.senatorfuschillo.com.
