The membership of a statewide Medicaid advisory committee has been reshaped and now includes a representative from the state Agency for Persons with Disabilities.
Tom Rice, the deputy director of programs for the agency, has been added to the Medical Care Advisory Committee, which met in Tallahassee on Wednesday.
The move comes amid increasing legislative scrutiny of the agency and the Medicaid iBudget. The iBudget is a Medicaid waiver program for people with developmental and intellectual disabilities.
Lawmakers this session are expected to consider changes meant to curb spending in the program. Rice isn’t the only new member on the panel. Diane Sanders Cepeda, who represents the Florida Society for Post Acute and Long Term Care Medicine, and Victoria Zepp with the Florida Coalition of Children also have been appointed to serve on the Medical Care Advisory Committee. The committee, mandated by federal law, meets quarterly.
Meanwhile, three committee members were removed: Dr. Robert Payne, with the Florida Dental Association; Amy Liem, with Florida Legal Services; and consumer representative Michael Lockwood.
Federal regulations require each state to have an advisory committee. At the panel’s meeting in Tallahassee earlier this week, Medicaid Director Beth Kidder updated members on the statewide Medicaid managed care program.
