Health

V.I. Department Of Human Services Officials To Testify Before Congress Appealing For Continued Medicaid Funding

V.I. Department of Human Services officials will testify before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on the Medicaid ‘fiscal cliff’ in Washington D.C Thursday, where they will continue the administration’s push for congressional action to prevent the U.S. Virgin Islands and other insular territories from falling off the Medicaid fiscal cliff, Government House made known via release Wednesday. Currently, the U.S. Virgin Islands receives temporary Medicaid funds from the Affordable Care Act and the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 (BBA), both of which provide critical health care support to more than 28,000 residents enrolled in Medicaid in the U.S. Virgin Islands, but are set to expire at the end of September 2019 if Congress does not act before that date. If Congress does not act to avert the fiscal cliff, the territory faces a 40 percent decrease in federal healthcare funds amounting to a $31 million shortfall and the potential loss of Medicaid coverage for 18,000 Virgin Islands re...