HPA News

Statement by Eric Linzer, HPA President and CEO

“We appreciate the Senate and Assembly including funding for the Medicaid Quality Incentive (QI) Program and urge that the final FY26 state budget fully funds this program at $300 million. The QI Program supports a broad range of initiatives that advance health equity and enhance the quality of care for the state’s most vulnerable residents. At a time when efforts to reduce health disparities and address the factors that create barriers to care are under attack at the Federal level, it’s vital that the state provide the necessary investments in the Mainstream Medicaid and MLTC programs to improve health outcomes for underserved populations.

“Additionally, we urge the Legislature to reconsider its rejection of Governor Hochul’s proposal to exclude Medicaid from the state’s Independent Dispute Resolution (IDR) process. The proposal will not affect patient care but it will keep high priced specialty providers from continuing to exploit the IDR process. There are too many examples of providers charging hundreds of thousands of dollars above what Medicaid typically pays, providing no benefit to patients and increasing costs for taxpayers. This is a sensible reform that should be included in the final FY26 state budget.”