Gov.-elect Rick Scottās transition teamĀ released 147 pages of policy documents on Monday. Though the recommendations arenāt binding, the Florida Tribune reports that they āwill be taken seriously.ā
The first deals with health care issues. A memo, written by Alan Levine, who ran the Agency for Health Care Administration under Jeb Bush, recommends combining four agencies ā the Agency for Health Care Administration, the Department of Elder Affairs, the Agency for Persons with Disabilities and the Department of Health ā into one massive ānew health and human service agency.ā
Other than consolidating agencies, which the memo says will help eliminate dozens of instances of overlap between them, the report says the incoming governor will have two major issues demanding the attention of his office: the stateās efforts to overhaul Medicaid, and the implementation of the federal health care reform law (though there is a āstrong consensusā among the advisory team that he should continue to call for its repeal). Those issues, Levine writes, demand a health policy āquarterbackā in Scottās office to coordinate efforts.
Whatās more, āany effortā to scale back the waiver secured for Floridaās Medicaid system under Bush (which is currently under federal review) āshould be met with strong opposition by our congressional delegation and the Scott administration.ā
The waiver created a pilot program, which lawmakers have considered expanding, under which care for Medicaid patients in five counties is overseen by HMOs and other managed-care organizations.
This program, along with other Bush-era reforms, has saved the federal government a good deal of money, Levine contends, and the only thanks Florida seems to get are fewer federal dollars flowing into its health care system.
Iāll have more on the transition documents later today.