Technology: The Be All and End All of Medicaid Reform?

There are a lot of expectations of what should come out of a 60-day extension granted to the state. A federal judge has given the state Department of Social Services an extra 60 days to develop a new program for processing requests for durable medical equipment from Medicaid recipients. The judge had ruled that the state was not using a “reasonable standard” in determining which claims were processed. The department says the governor expressed his desire for a new technologically advanced system that’s both effective and efficient, so it says it’s developing a new state-of-the-art system that’s both effective and efficient. Attorney Tom Kennedy says if the state wants to modernize the system that’s great, but it remains to be seen whether technology will satisfy the “reasonable standard” clause. In the meantime, the department says it use the guidelines that were in place prior to any changes made in state Medicaid for all claims filed between March 2nd and June 1st.