States touts Medicaid managed care success

Ohio’s pilot managed-care program serving 107,000 poor and disabled Ohioans who qualify for Medicaid and Medicare coverage has improved coordination of care while saving taxpayers millions, according to a state evaluation (Source: “State touts managed care as saving millions, improving outcomes,” Columbus Dispatch, April 26, 2017).

The third-year progress report by MyCare Ohio suggests problems like lengthy waits for payments endured by home-health aides and other medical providers largely have been resolved.

The report was released this week as Gov. John Kasich is trying to save his plan to move the last group of Medicaid beneficiaries into private managed care plans, more than 150,000 mostly elderly and disabled Ohioans receiving long-term care services at home or in nursing facilities.

About 90 percent of the 3 million poor and disabled Ohioans enrolled in the tax-funded health care program are already in managed care. The rest, with some exceptions, would transition from fee-for-service beginning in July 2018 under a proposal included in the Republican governor’s two-year budget plan.