‘We are desperate’: Stein calls session on Medicaid funding as cuts hit

RALEIGH, N.C. — As a budget stalemate continues in Raleigh, Gov. Josh Stein is renewing calls for the General Assembly to get back to work on a deal.

With no budget, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services cut Medicaid reimbursement rates, saying it needed to make up for a gap in funding.

Now, some of those cuts are being pulled back by a judge’s order.

Health care providers saw Medicaid reimbursement rates drop less than a week ago.

On Wednesday, Superior Court Judge G. Bryan Collins issued a temporary restraining order that puts a pause on cuts to Medicaid reimbursement rates for behavioral health treatments.

The state Department of Health and Human Services cut Medicaid reimbursement rates for certain services by 3% to 10% on Oct. 1.

It included a 10% rate decrease to research-based behavioral health treatments.

Twenty-two parents of children diagnosed with autism or who are receiving therapy sued DHHS, saying the cuts would keep kids from being treated.

They said it’s a violation of the state’s constitution.

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit against DHHS filed a motion for a preliminary injunction.

That would keep the Medicaid rates for behavioral health services in place until the case is decided in court.

A judge will choose whether to grant that request in a hearing on Nov. 10.

Stein did not address that lawsuit in a press conference outside the state capitol on Thursday but acknowledged the cuts’ potential impact to people with autism and vulnerable populations.

He called on lawmakers to come back to Raleigh for an extra session on Nov. 17 to hammer out a deal to fund Medicaid.

“We are desperate to restore the funding levels to where they were before, but by law we cannot spend money that we do not have, nor should we spend money that we do not have,” Stein said. “The legislature has not fully funded Medicaid, they know they’ve not fully funded Medicaid.”

DHHS Secretary Dev Sangvai said the state’s Medicaid shortfall is roughly $319 million.

He said the department is starting to receive emails from a handful of larger providers saying they may exit Medicaid at the end of the month.

Republicans have been critical of Stein and DHHS, saying the cuts to Medicaid were unnecessary.

House Speaker Destin Hall has called it a “manufactured crisis.”

The governor today used the same term but blamed the General Assembly.

To this point the House and Senate appear no closer to funding Medicaid or reaching a budget agreement, with leadership from both chambers signaling they’ve likely already cast their final votes of the year.

The chambers have been at odds over potential state funding for a children’s hospital system and money for a rural health care initiative.

Republicans in the Senate are in favor, but Republicans in the House are opposed.

Stein said his most recent conversations with Republican leadership in the House and Senate did not go as he had hoped.

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