By Marshall Griffin, St. Louis Public Radio
Jefferson City, Mo. – A Missouri House committee is gathering information on Medicaid spending, in preparation for next year's legislative session.
The House Interim Committee on Budget Transparency is asking questions of the departments of Social Services, Health and Senior Services and Mental Health...the three state agencies that dole out almost all of Missouri's Medicaid money.
Chairman Ryan Silvey (R, Kansas City), who will also chair the actual House Budget Committee, hinted at the possibility of consolidating Medicaid services.
"I want to know if we're going to have this one program spread across three different departments that that is the absolute best way to do it," Silvey said. "If it's not the best way, those decisions need to happen first, before we go and we start cutting services to our constituents."
Silvey also told the committee that they may have to cut nearly $700 million from next year's state budget. Governor Nixon's office, meanwhile, has estimated that Missouri faces a potential $600 million budget shortfall next year.
"Before we make decisions that potentially put fewer services out there for our constituents, I want to know with absolute certainty that we are operating the most efficient government possible, that we're not duplicating services," Silvey said.
The 2011 legislative session begins January 5th.