State unveils plan for Medicaid/Medicare "dual eligibles"

The Governor’s Office of Health Transformation announced this week a plan to better coordinate care for 190,000 Ohioans eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid, a group that makes up 10 percent of the state’s Medicaid population but accounts for 46 percent of long-term-care costs (Source: “Sickest unsettled by state’s plans to change long-term care,” Columbus Dispatch, Feb. 27, 2012).

The plan, which is detailed on OHT’s website,  calls for managed care plans to oversee an “Integrated Care Delivery System” that would give beneficiaries a single point of contact, regardless of the care or service they need. Neither benefits or eligilbility guidelines will change under the new plan.

“This is not the same, old managed care,” said OHT Director Greg Moody. “Benefits are protected, and we are listening to what they are saying. ... Anything anyone gets today will continue.”