Texas asks court to OK end to 14-yr Medicaid fight

Texas on Monday asked a U.S. court to accept a settlement ending a 14-year fight over whether it failed to provide Medicaid to poor children, an accord that could cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars a year and subject it to strict supervision.

Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, a San Antonio Democrat, told Reuters by telephone that the pact also boosts doctors' reimbursement rates by 25 percent and gives dentists a 50 percent increase.

The increases aim to solve one of the biggest problems facing parents of the state's 2.8 million impoverished children who qualify for the state-federal Medicaid program health benefits, the experts said.

Because Texas now has some of the country's lowest reimbursement rates, many doctors and dentists for years have turned these children away. Last year, about 1.5 million of the state's Medicaid children did not get either a medical or dental check-up, Van de Putte noted.

Susan Zinn, the lead attorney for the children, said the 2.8 million impoverished children who qualify -- about one-third of Texas's children -- now stand to get Medicaid if Judge William Wayne Justice of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas approves the settlement.

"This is not a case about money damages, this is a case about making sure children who have Medicaid get the healthcare they need," said Zinn, who twice took her fight with Texas to the U.S. Supreme Court.

source:www.reuters.com