Wisconsin managed Medicaid program strains under cuts; Mississippi latest southern state to say it won't expand Medicaid; and California shifts 860,000 kids to Medicaid in this week's Medicaid Digest.
SE Wisconsin Medicaid insurers losing money
A recent report in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported that three of the four organizations managing BadgerCare Plus – Wisconsin's managed Medicaid program – in the southeastern portion of the state are losing money and may eventually pull out of providing services for the 300,000 people enrolled in the program there.
United HealthCare has already announced it will drop service at the end of the month and a second company, Molina Healthcare has said it may do the same soon. Children's Community Health Plan told the Journal-Sentinel it, too had lost money this year, while the fourth organization CommunityConnect HealthPlan did not comment. The companies are losing money because the state cut payments for the program by 11 percent in 2011 and again in 2012 as it sought to balance the state budget.
The Wisconsin Department of Health Services has indicated it will be revisiting the rates it currently pays and look to develop rates that will ensure BadgerCare Plus will continue to have an adequate network in the coming years.
Mississippi won't take federal dollars for Medicaid expansion
Mississippi's Republican Gov. Phil Bryant became the latest southern GOP state executive to say he won't seek to expand Medicaid, shunning federal money that would pour into the state to fund it.
"While some people say Obamacare will come as an economic boost with 'free' money, the reality is simple: No money is free," Bryant told the Picayune (Miss.) Item. "Since when did the federal government ever give free money without asking for something in return?"
Mississippi has one of the highest rates of uninsurance in the country, with nearly 1-in-7 residents without health insurance. Estimates based on this indicate that as many as 400,000 additional people could be added to state Medicaid rolls if it were to expand the program. In a recent estimate of what it would costs states to expand the program, Kasier Family Foundation determined that between 2014 and 2019 Mississippi could expect to receive nearly $9.9 billion in federal funds to support the program while the state's cost would increase by $429 million.
California to shift 860,000 kids from low-income insurance program to Medicaid
California health officials plan to close the Healthy Families program, a move that will shift the health insurance coverage for more than 860,000 children to the state Medicaid program. According to the state, the shift will save the state $73 million a year.
But some in the state are worried that moving the kids from one program to another could potentially disrupt the continuity of care for those affected by the change.
"My main concern is that those children continue to have access to the care they need," state Assemblyman Richard Pan, a pediatrician, told the Associated Press last week. "Ultimately it's about the quality of care."
California Health and Human Services Secretary Diana Dooley said in an interview that the shift will help streamline children's health care and reduce government complexities, but acknowledged that things don't always go as planned with such transitions. Amid concerns that Healthy Families is being shuttered solely as a mean to save money, Dooley contends it is also necessary as California looks toward 2014 and implementing various provision of the national health reform law.