Illinois Medicaid Transparency Bill Advances

Friday, March 5, 2010 11:51 AM

A bill designed to give taxpayers and administrators a better idea how Medicaid resources are being used passed the Illinois House Medicaid Reform, Family & Children Services Committee yesterday. 

While addressing patient privacy concerns by removing all identifying characteristics, the legislation would create an online transparency database for Medicaid claims.

Citing the example of South Carolina, where the Department of Health and Human Services recently created a similar database providing three years worth of data using internal existing resources, Kristina Rasmussen, executive vice president of the Illinois Policy Institute explained in her testimony why the legislature should pass HB 5241:

Medicaid spending accounts for 30 percent of Illinois’s budget, and the program is growing. During the last 10 years, Medicaid liabilities have grown at a rate of 6.9 percent a year and program administrators projected a 7 percent spending increase for 2010. Between 2003 and 2008, Medicaid enrollment grew at an average rate of 7.8 percent a year while Illinois’s population grew 0.5 percent.

What are we getting from this spending? It’s not clear. Illinois lacks an information resource that details how Medicaid dollars are spent and what outcomes are achieved. Taxpayers can’t see if their dollars are being used wisely.

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Program administrators – as well as Illinois residents – would benefit from having access to claims information. The online website outlined in HB 5241 could be utilized for a number of purposes, ranging from identifying irregular billing patterns to improving the quality of health care provided. Illinois is home to many people with many talents and specialties; opening up information to residents could result in valuable insights and recommendations.

We agree and hope the legislature will act swiftly to pass this common-sense piece of legislation.

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