If lawmakers don’t find $70 million dollars for the Oklahoma Health Care Authority soon, the agency will have to cut many SoonerCare reimbursement rates 9 percent.
The OHCA has been on shaky budget ground for months.
"I think we would look at the possibility of a provider rate cut in combination, maybe, with some other kinds of cost savings measures. If it's solely a provider rate cut, it translates into about 8 percent to garner $70 million in state dollars," OHCA CEO Becky Pasternik-Ikard said in July.
Pasternik-Ikard spoke at a State of the Oklahoma Health Care Authority event in Tulsa a week before the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled a $1.50 cigarette tax passed at the end of the legislative session unconstitutional. OHCA was in line for $70 million of $215 million expected from that tax, and the state finance secretary's office recently asked the agency for a revised budget since the funding isn't there.
If approved by the OHCA board next month, the cuts will take effect Dec. 1.
"That is something we would prefer not to do. No. We value our provider network, and they're critical to the success of our program," Pasternik-Ikard said.
