Lawmaker wants to prove politicians are lying about Medicaid
BATON ROUGE- State Senator Ryan Gatti is taking a bold step, he sponsoring a bill he actually opposes. The Bossier City Republican wants to steal the thunder from opportunistic politicians who like to blame Medicaid patients for Louisiana's budget woes.
The freshman senator said he's tired of hearing rumors about Medicaid patients getting emergency room care for things like poison ivy. He wants to know if all that is true.
"If you listen to people running for office, you would think every emergency room is clogged with Medicaid patients there for non-emergency situations. But that's simply not how the facts are panning out,"Gatti said.
So he's sponsoring a bill that would stop the state from reimbursing emergency rooms when patients receive treatment for non-emergency conditions. Gatti believes the legislative process for this bill will force studies to be done that will determine how often emergency room abuse happens.
"This bill is intended to determine the the truthfulness of things said out in public by people running for office," said Gatti.
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Hospitals oppose the bill because if it actually becomes law the facilities will lose money. Federal law requires hospitals to evaluate people who come to the ER if they believe they have a life-threatening condition.