Hise: Cooper can't Expand Medicaid without NCGA Approval | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: The author of this post is Dan Way, who is an associate editor for the Carolina Journal, John Hood Publisher.

Senate committee chair says executive order would violate laws passed in 2011 or 2013

    Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper announced his plans today to circumvent the Republican-led General Assembly, and expand North Carolina's Medicaid enrollment, possibly by executive order requesting an amendment to the state's Medicaid plan from the Obama administration. Sen. Ralph Hise, R-Mitchell, a powerful legislative health care leader, said Cooper does not have legal standing to do that, and if he is spoiling for a fight, he'll get it.

    "He seems to want a contentious fight in the Medicaid field, and I'm quite confident with this decision he doesn't know Medicaid policies, law, or procedures well enough to even attempt in those areas this type of argument," said Hise, chairman of the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Medicaid and N.C. Health Choice. He chaired other health-related committees that dealt with Medicaid in the past session.

    "If he wants to be in this contentious nature with the General Assembly, I think he might find out who writes the laws in the state of North Carolina," Hise said.

    Cooper made his announcement at the N.C. Chamber and N.C. Bankers Association's 15th Annual Economic Forecast.


Gov. Roy Cooper announced his plans for Medicaid expansion at the N.C. Chamber's economic forum Wednesday. (CJ photo by Barry Smith)

    Amy Auth, a spokeswoman for Senate leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, said he has not seen Cooper's plan, but "will likely issue a statement after we've had a chance to review what the governor has said."

    Any action by Cooper to issue an executive order to expand Medicaid rolls "is clearly in violation of state law we passed in 2013 as well as 2011," Hise said. "Any actions of the state require specifically the approval of the General Assembly."

    Hise said he received numerous text messages and phone calls from interested parties the past few days that Cooper was considering his move on Medicaid.

    In order for any revisions to the state Medicaid program to be made, the General Assembly would have to go to the Department of Health and Human Services to develop a plan amendment, which then would need to be forwarded to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

    "We have always experienced that to be a very long process," Hise said of amending Medicaid. "Even if this was something that we as a General Assembly were to come in and pass, and say this is something we're going to do, that would be a six- to nine-month process very similar to what we're seeing right now with the Medicaid reform going through CMS."

    It "would not be traditional for CMS in a few-weeks period to even consider or look at an amendment from North Carolina," Hise said, although he worries that Cooper could be working on "an orchestrated plan with what's left of the Obama administration. I guess that's the biggest concern. But, again, I think we would reject it as soon as we receive it."

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