MetroHealth Medicaid pilot showing signs of success

In the first nine months after Cleveland’s MetroHealth redirected more than $30 million from Cuyahoga County taxpayers to create its very own Medicaid program for residents, health outcomes have already started to improve, according to the public hospital system (Source: “Cleveland's Early Medicaid Expansion Paying Off,” WCPN radio via Kaiser Health News, Aug. 5, 2014).

"All of the clinical outcomes are really amazing," said Dr. Randy Cebul, a researcher at MetroHealth.

In nine months, emergency department visits dropped 60 percent and primary care visits went up 50 percent. The hospital also ended up spending less than it budgeted, saving an average of $150 on each patient every month.