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Secretary Thompson said the department worked with Florida officials to quickly resolve the state's request to make changes to the program, bringing resolution to some issues that have been pending for years and hampering the state's ability to make needed improvements to its Medicaid program. The secretary vowed to work with state officials to resolve other pending requests from Florida in the coming weeks.

"Our actions today make good on President Bush's promise to build a stronger partnership with states and to provide a faster response from the federal government," Secretary Thompson said. "We look to states to use their Medicaid and State Children's Health Insurance Programs creatively and effectively to expand access and improve health care for vulnerable Americans."

The changes approved today are:

• Florida's plan to increase special Medicaid payments to certain hospitals, including teaching hospitals, children's hospitals and other hospitals that provide the majority of care to the disadvantaged and Medicaid patients in Florida.
• Florida's waiver to allow Medicaid beneficiaries with diabetes in pilot areas to receive prescribed medications and related supplies through mail order distribution.
• Florida's plan to pay for personal care services to beneficiaries who receive 24-hour, integrated care from certain providers, which will support needed care to some of the most vulnerable Medicaid beneficiaries and frequently will help avoid the need for institutionalization.

Medicaid is a state/federal partnership that provides health insurance to certain low-income individuals such as pregnant women, poor children, the aged, blind and disabled. While the federal government pays at least half, and sometimes more, of the cost of the program, states are largely responsible for administering Medicaid. For instance, operating within broad federal guidelines, states set their own eligibility rules, determine additions to the basic benefit package and set the rate of payment for services. Currently, about 41 million Americans depend on the Medicaid program for access to health care services.

The Bush administration has made a commitment to states to give them more power in determining the nature of their programs by granting waivers from federal rules. These waivers allow states to experiment with new health care delivery systems such a managed care. Waivers also allow states to offer care to uninsured people who otherwise would not be eligible for the program.

"Approving these waivers today is just another step toward our goal of letting states do what is best to get needed health care to their citizens," Secretary Thompson said.

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