Region 3 of Kentucky’s Medicaid system, comprising Jefferson and nearby counties, is in the throes of a major reorganization. Beginning January 1, the previous monopoly to provide Medicaid services held by a consortium of providers organized by the University of Louisville was withdrawn. State contracts were offered to three additional Medicaid Managed Care Organizations (MCOs). The timing of this major change was not the most felicitous, given that the statewide Medicaid managed care system newly put in place January 2012, could be said sympathetically to be in chaos. Medicaid managed care has been operational in Region 3 for several years and was providing acceptable clinical services, albeit under a cloud of abusive if not illegal management by its UofL-controlled financial administration. (One might say it was used as a slush fund. No one went to jail, but people lost their jobs and a major reorganization was demanded by the state.)
Given that the new contracts and procedures in Region 3 are essentially the same as those now used statewide, it is instructive to see how things have been going in the rest of the state. Alas, the precedents are not rosy. “Medicaid-Meltdown” is a term that is frequently being used. The rocky start may be one of the reasons the state is withholding its approval of expanding the Medicaid program under the new federal Accountability and Affordability Act to provide more Kentucky individuals health insurance coverage. In that regard, an interim report funded by the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky and prepared by the Urban Institute and the University of Kentucky is receiving much attention nationally and is relevant to Region 3’s future. (Click the “Medicaid” category link in the left column of the Blog home page for available earlier comments.) Continue reading “Passport Medicaid Health Plan Winning Majority of Medicaid Beneficiaries.”
