Monday, April 4, 2011

AZ Capitol Times: Transplant Still Unfunded in AZ Budget

Posted By on Mon, Apr 4, 2011 at 2:22 PM

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Luige del Puerto of the Arizona Capitol Times explains why some organs transplants remain unfunded by the Arizona Legislature's budget:

Legislators inserted an “intent clause” in the measure, SB1619, saying they wanted the transplant services, which were discontinued by a law adopted last year, to be funded. But they provided no money to back up their intent. Neither did they authorize the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System to find the money within the agency for those services.

In fact, the bill did not lift language in statute that specifically disallows the transplant services, a decision that drove home the severity of Arizona’s festering fiscal crisis.

So what you have is a bill that orders AHCCCS to still not provide those medical services and then also says legislators wanted them funded.

[AZ Capitol Times]