New York State Defends High Cost of Care

New York state's highest-in-the-nation Medicaid reimbursement rate for the mentally disabled is legal and justified, officials argue in papers submitted to the federal government — and, moreover, they told the Poughkeepsie Journal, it should be even higher.
The federal government had asked the state to justify its $4,556 per-person daily rate at nine state institutions as "reasonable" in response to revelations in June in the Journal. The rate, paid half each by the state and federal governments, is four times higher than any other nationwide and about four times the actual cost of care.