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Gov. Robert Bentley said today the Alabama Medicaid Agency would examine program cuts before he considers calling a special session over the state budget. Bentley and Medicaid Commissioner Stephanie Azar went over potential cuts one day after the Legislature overrode the governor's veto and enacted the General Fund budget. Lawmakers appropriated $700 million from the General Fund for Medicaid next year, $85 million short of the governor's request. ... [Bentley] said one option could be to eliminate prescription drug coverage for adults, which would save an estimated $50 million to $60 million in state dollars. "If we have to live within our means, then we have to make some very tough decisions," the governor said. (Cason, 4/6)

Gov. Robert Bentley and Medicaid Commissioner Stephanie Azar on Wednesday laid out a stark picture of the impact of the Medicaid budget approved by the Legislature, including the elimination of many services, cuts to physician reimbursements and elimination of drug coverage for adults. (Lyman, 4/6)

Many nursing homes across rural Oklahoma, including Fairview Fellowship Home, may have to stop serving Medicaid patients if the proposed cuts are approved. ... Fairview Fellowship Home is the only five star nursing home within a 50 mile radius in Major County. “We have 41 Medicaid residents here at our facility,” Dykes said. Dykes said that if the nursing home loses 25 percent percent of their Medicaid reimbursement rates, their facility would be out $550,000 a year. She said her facility may not have any other choice but to turn Medicaid patients away. (Price, 4/6)

Dwight Sublett has seen a lot of busts in his 33 years as a pediatrician in Stillwater, Oklahoma, but this year ranks among the worst. With oil hovering at $35 a barrel, the state is facing a $1.3 billion budget shortfall for the fiscal year starting on July 1. On March 29 the Oklahoma Health Care Authority warned it would have to cut 25 percent from reimbursements to physicians, hospitals, and other medical providers under the state’s Medicaid program, SoonerCare. The program covers a million poor Oklahomans each year, more than a quarter of the state’s population. “For the rural physicians, this is going to be a devastating blow,” Sublett says. (Tozzi, 4/7)