Public employee and retiree health care benefits might be the next casualty of the state budget impasse.
Dean Olsen, who covers health care for The State-Journal Register, broke the news over the weekend that Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration plans to stop making payments to doctors and others providing medical care to state employees.
Rauner said without a budget, he has no legal authority to make the payments. The administration has already stopped making payments for dental coverage and self-insured plans.
If the lack of payments drags on, patients might be asked to pay up front for medical care and wait for reimbursement. Providers have experienced long delays in these payments before. Will things be different this time?
You can read Olsen's latest story for The State Journal-Register here and the notice about payment stoppage from The Illinois Department of Central Management Services here.
