Pritzker signs bill aimed to make Medicaid more efficient

Posted on August 5, 2019
Gov. JB Pritzker Monday in Chicago. (Photo Governor JB Pritzker/Twitter)

 

By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD – Gov. JB Pritzker Monday signed a bill touted as a streamlining of Medicaid.

“We are reforming and improving access to Medicaid, the largest single source of insurance in our state,” covering about three million people, the governor said at a bill-signing ceremony in Chicago. “This legislation launches one of the most aggressive cross-agency efforts in Illinois history to expand healthcare access and to eliminate the multi-year Medicaid backlog once and for all.”

That backlog was as high as 120,000 applications. The Pritzker administration is taking credit for cutting that down to 95,000.

The state’s Department of Human Services is to set up a claims clearinghouse and settle disputes between providers and managed care organizations.

Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected].

Blogs

Labor Day – Expanding voting rights for all

By Mike Matejka Because of COVID, there is no Labor Day Parade this year.  It’s always a great event for our everyday workers to march proudly down the street and enjoys the festive crowd. If there had been a parade, this year’s Labor Day theme was to be “150 years of struggle: your right to vote.” …

Is federal mobilization the answer?

By Mike Matejka As President Donald Trump threatens to send federal marshals into Chicago, over the objections of Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, recall another Illinois Governor who protested the incursion of armed federal personnel into the city.   Those federal troops, rather than calming, escalated the situation, leading to deaths and violence. Illinois poet Vachel Lindsay…

In these troubled times, to my fellow white Americans

By Mike Matejka Our nation is at a unique watershed in human relations. African-Americans have been killed too many times in the past before George Floyd, but the response to this man’s death is international and all-encompassing. I was a grade-schooler during the Civil Rights 1960s. I watched Birmingham demonstrators hosed and the Selma – Montgomery…

Workers’ Memorial Day – Remember those whose job took their life

Looking around our community, when we say employer, most will respond to State Farm, Country, or Illinois State University.   We too often forget those who are building our roads, serving our food, or our public employees. COVID-19 has made us more aware of the risk.  Going to work every day for some people means…