Florida Medicaid-HMO experiment attracts national attention

As states across the country look to reign in Medicaid costs in order to balance budgets, a Florida experiment to funnel all Medicaid enrollees into for-profit HMOs or networks run by hospitals or doctors is attracting national attention (Source: “In Florida, H.M.O.’s Would Treat Medicaid Patients,” New York Times, April 27, 2011).

The state’s plan  includes the HMOs or networks managing the long-term care of the elderly.

“If Florida adopts this method of looking at managed care, other states will definitely look at that, and this is a tool we can use,” said Michael W. Garner, the president of the Florida Association of Health Plans, which lobbies for H.M.O.’s. “The toolbox is pretty empty right now.