Florida Pediatricians Worried GOP Donors Want Special Needs Children Off Medicaid Program
August 18th, 2017 by Jake Stofan
Florida pediatricians are concerned of a possible concerted effort by GOP political donors to keep low income special needs children off of a Medicaid Program known as Children’s Medical Services.
In 2015, more than 13,000 children were removed from the program as a result of a survey that was introduced to deem if a child qualified for the program or not.
The survey was later found to be misleading and is no longer used.
After extraneous efforts the Florida Department of Health sent 6,081 parents whose children were removed from CMS and put on 11 other Medicaid plans owned by private companies a letter telling them they could reapply.
An extensive report by CNN found the companies that owned the private plans the children were switched to, made significant donations to the Florida Republican Party.
Pediatricians like Dr. Louis St. Petery say the Department of Health has still been reluctant to share how many of those children actually made it back on to CMS plans.
Which, he says suggests there still might be an effort to keep some of the kids off CMS.
“They did send out a letter to about six thousand kids, whom in their opinion, were the only ones who didn’t make it back to CMS. We’ve asked, ‘So, you’ve sent out the letter, how many of them got back on CMS?’ No answer. There still seems to be a reluctance to actually openly discuss the issues,” said Dr. Petery.
The 11 companies cited in the CNN article contributed $8.6 million to Florida Republican Party committees from 2010 to 2014
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