Vermont Budget Includes Medicaid Reimbursement Increase

Following a multiday debate on the state budget, the Vermont General Assembly reached a last-minute compromise on a Medicaid reimbursement rate increase to health care providers on May 9.

The legislature agreed to increase Medicaid reimbursements by 1.6 percent. The House had favored an increase of just 0.75 percent, while the Senate wanted the rate to go up by 2 percent and would have mandated a proportional wage increase for direct-care workers.

Governor Peter Shumlin (D), who favored the 2 percent increase, is expected to sign the budget into law.

The 1.6 percent Medicaid rate increase will cost an estimated $2 million.

The rate increase “will be helpful to Vermonters in general, because there won’t be as much of a cost shift in health care as there otherwise would be,” said state representative Martha Heath (D), the chair of the state House Appropriations Committee.

— by Matthew Ozga