Medicaid spending among topics during transition team meeting
The Gov.-elect Matt Meyer’s Care and Community Action Committee touched on Medicaid spending, and the Department of Health and Social Services during its Dec. 11 meeting. The group is developing recommendations for the incoming Meyer administration.
“DHSS is, I think it’s fair to say, the largest state agency in terms of the number of employees it has, the amount of money it is responsible for in the state’s budget,” said Aaron Goldstein, co-chair of the committee. “It’s probably one of the most complex agencies that the state has.”
Drew Wilson, director of Medicaid for DHSS, said about a quarter of Delaware’s population is on Medicaid, down from one-third during the COVID years.
Medicaid is also the biggest payer in Delaware.
“We have the most lives, and by dollars probably the biggest payer as well,” Wilson said. “We’re about $1 billion of a little over $6 billion state budget, and we leverage that fund to bring in almost $2.3 billion in other federal dollars.”
Goldstein said the next largest payer is the self-insured state employee plan, followed by the commercial market.
“DHSS is the largest entity that is within the scope of our committee, and certainly Medicaid is probably the largest driver of its fiscal picture,” he said.
Meyer joined the group to thank members for their work.
“You’re rolling up your sleeves and really getting into the nuts and bolts of policy,” he said. “The report you’re going to produce is something we’re going to take and look to implement starting on day one.”
While he is looking at ways to improve operations, he said, he wants to make sure that systems that are working remain intact.
“Part of our job is to make sure we don’t set back things that are going well,” he said. “I look forward to taking your thoughts and putting them into action and meaningful policy.”