Louisiana continues to spend more slowly than expected on Medicaid services, a pace projected to leave the state with $26 million in savings this budget year.
The latest Medicaid forecast, released Tuesday, shows the $12.5 billion program is expected to spend as much as $612 million less than estimated for the financial year that ends June 30.
Most of that money would be unused federal spending authority, not dollars that can be allocated to other state programs. But the Louisiana Department of Health says $26 million would be a state general fund surplus that could be spent elsewhere, if the trend continues.
More than $535 million of the less-than-projected spending is in the Medicaid expansion program that has added 446,000 adults to the government-financed insurance coverage.