Two dozen doctors and health care organizations are taking the state of Illinois to court for not paying Medicaid providers fast enough. And in a new court filing, the state argues it’s out of money. A federal judge has ruled Illinois HAS to pay for Medicaid even if there’s no state budget.
But Medicaid providers say that’s not good enough. They say the state’s 6 months behind paying its bills and they may have to stop serving Medicaid patients.
In a new court filing, attorneys for the state government say the state owes 14 billion dollars for lots of services. And if the federal judge requires Medicaid payments before everything else, then the state will be even slower in paying schools, foster children, and the paychecks of government employees.