Kentucky restricts Medicaid services of dental and vision care

The administration of Kentucky Republican Governor Matt Bevin has recently limited the benefits of five hundred thousand of his state’s Medicaid recipients. The new limitations. The procedure was approved by the Trump administration during January, and have started to apply massive changes in the citizens’ health care, such as a suspension of dental and vision checkups.

The whole set of changes was set to start on July 1st, yet it was stopped two days prior by US District Judge James Boasberg, who urged for the Department of Health and Human Services to review and approve the measure before moving on.  The judge also mentioned that the department’s secretary had previously refused to analyze whether the proposed measures could cause the people to lose their health care.

The Kentucky administration was quick to state that they were forced to propose the limitations, and followed up by saying that dental care and vision-related coverage would be taken away until the analysis ends and a decision has been taken. These services were gained when the administration, under Obamacare, expanded Medicaid’s benefits for its citizens in 2014. However, patients who have lost their services haven’t been left without any aid in those regards, as they can receive credits for the services by completing different tasks.

Shorty after the restrictions’ announcement, the secretary for the Cabinet for Health and Family Services explained why and how the services had been shut down. After the judge blocked the planned restrictions by sending them to the DHH for further analysis, the My Rewards Account program was also canceled momentarily, leaving it impossible for patients to pay for dental or vision services. However, according to the agency, less than 10% of the program’s recipients had actually used their accounts for those kinds of services. The cabinet released a statement to further explain the situation. It read:

The Cabinet for Health and Family Services made it clear that dental and vision benefits were dependent on the implementation of the Kentucky HEALTH waiver and that without the waiver, immediate benefit reductions would be required to compensate for the increasing costs of expanded Medicaid.”

These are not the only restrictions that the agency was planning on landing, as they threatened to cut on drug benefits or the entire Medicaid benefits themselves.

The latest ruling from Judge Boasberg was influenced by a lawsuit presented by three customer advocacy groups. They argued that the limitations would directly counter Medicaid’s objective of providing middle and low-class citizens with efficient health care. According to analysts, this is the first time that the state of Kentucky has taken away benefits, and have been notoriously bad with their oral care policies. The current state of their health care will likely not help them with this situation. Restricting their services could also invite providers of said services to not opening offices, especially in rural areas.

However, Kentucky is still working with its offices to address the presenting complaints and move forward with the revision of the legislation.

Featured Image via Wikimedia Commons