Governor issues letter seeking Medicaid funding

Gov. Jim Gibbons' office is sending a letter to Nevada's congressional delegation urging them to either help restore extended Medicaid funding for next year or tell the state as soon as possible the money won't be there.

Deputy Chief of Staff Lynn Hettrick said the letter "is saying we've got to know something soon."

Hettrick said if the $88.5 million in extension funding isn't coming, Nevada needs to know now so that Health and Human Services isn't stuck trying to make cuts with just six months left in the fiscal year.

"We went through the numbers again yesterday," he said. "How long can we go before we have to start doing something to make the budget balance?"

"We decided to send (the Congressional delegation) a letter saying we need an answer and very quickly," he said.

The extra Medicaid funding was originally approved as part of the stimulus package, increasing the federal share in Nevada's case from 50 percent to just under 64 percent.

Unless the program is extended, the federal share drops back to 50 percent in January even though the state's Medicaid caseload is at an all-time high.

No matter what, Hettrick said, a special legislative session is the absolute last resort.

"I don't believe there's going to be a need for a special session," he said. "We're doing everything we can not to have one."

If the money isn't coming, he said, "HHS is going to come up short nearly $100 million and we'll have to make changes to fix it."

"We're probably just going to have to cut expenditures," Hettrick said. "That's going to make a bunch of folks unhappy but, if the feds don't send the money, what do we do?"

Nevada and 29 other states included the extended Medicaid funding in their budgets so he said the state isn't alone.

"All believed, with some reason, as did we, that we were going to get the money," he said.

Rep. Shelley Berkley's office, however, did confirm that the $9.3 million in welfare contingency funding state officials originally thought had been cut as well is still in the legislation. Only the Medicaid portion was removed.