WASHINGTON -- The House Energy and Commerce Committee postponed a vote yesterday on legislation to delay for nine months the Jan. 1, 1992, effective date of the new Medicaid financing rules.
An aide to the panel said the vote was put off because committee members were preoccupied with legislation to reform the banking industry. The aide said the vote may be rescheduled for next week, but no firm date has been set yet.
The rules, published by the Health Care Financing Administration on Sept. 12, will require the federal government to stop matching the portion of state Medicaid funds garnered through donations, and they will place tight new restrictions on the types of state taxes that can be counted toward the federal match. The states have said the rules would cripple their finances.
On Tuesdya, the health administration announced it would grant states, on a case-by-case basis, a six-month delay of the effective date. A state would be eligible for the postponement only if it could comply with the department's set of conditions, which some health lobbyists have said will be difficult to meet.
