The Mississippi Division of Medicaid hangs in the balance this Friday after the House and Senate killed both technical amendment bills on adjournment for the week.
Today was the deadline for any bills held on a motion to reconsider to either be brought to back the floor or die on the calendar. Both Medicaid technical amendment bills were held on that motion, after passage on the floor Thursday. The House was considering SB 2799, which passed on a vote of 116 to 3, while the Senate had HB 1008 which passed 47 to 3.
After convening at 9:00am Friday, the House recessed subject to call of the chair. The reasoning, Speaker Gunn said, was to wait to see what business the Senate took up before moving forward.
RELATED: Medicaid tech bills make their way through the Legislature with major changes ahead
When the Senate met, the chamber moved through their calendar taking up only a few items and ultimately leaving the Medicaid tech bill from the House to die. Knowing this, it remains unclear as to why the House also let the Senate’s version of the bill die.
According to Chairman of Medicaid Senator Kevin Blackwell, this it is not the end of the road for Medicaid by any means.
“There are several procedural measures that could occur in order to resurrect the code sections and implement the changes intended for the Division of Medicaid,” said Blackwell.
Legislators are soon to embark on the conference process. This is a time when the “kinks” in many pieces of legislation are worked out prior to being passed. The language could be revived with the passage of a resolution in either chamber, and/or perhaps adding the language onto the Medicaid appropriations bill in conference.
One way or another, this is not the last time we will dive into the Medicaid tech bill and the changes that could be made to the division this session.
Chairman of the House Medicaid Committee, Rep. Joey Hood, could not be reached for comment at the time of publication.
Sarah Ulmer
