Delaware budget fine tuning

The legislature’s budget-writing Joint Finance Committee is continuing to work its way through Gov. Jack Markell’s proposed spending plan for the fiscal year starting July 1.

The committee on Monday voted on several small line items while also engaging in further discussions on Markell’s proposal to save some $5 million in Medicaid costs. The governor cost-savings plan includes restricting Medicaid recipients to no more than three non-urgent emergency room visits each year and requiring a small co-pay for doctor and therapist visits.

The committee also heard from a representative of the state’s private nursing home industry, who asked the legislature to increase the Medicaid reimbursement rate for those private facilities, which was frozen in 2009.