Legislators take action to calm fears over Medicaid payments

Iowa legislators are trying to reassure the state’s health care providers with action. The Legislature’s Rules Review Committee has put a hold on a plan to cut Medicaid rates for nursing homes, doctors and hospitals by 13 percent. The Medicaid program provides health care coverage for elderly who are poor or disabled. Sixty-percent of Iowa Medicaid payments go to nursing homes.House Republican Leader Christopher Rants of Sioux City says legislators are taking the action because they don’t want people to think nursing homes will close because Medicaid’s being cut.A group of legislators met with executives from nursing homes and hospitals as well as doctors to try to find ways to erase the 48-million dollars of red ink in the state’s Medicaid budget.