Health News
- Passport Health Claims State Violated Bidding Process And Will Make Medicaid Overpayments In Jefferson County As A Result
Passport Health Plan has charged that the state of Kentucky has violated its own bidding process and will spend as much as $80 million more than necessary per year under its new Medicaid managed-care contracts for the Jefferson County region. Tom Loftus...
- State And Companies Were Unprepared For Quick Move To Managed Care, State Auditor Concludes
Kentucky officials and the companies in charge were unprepared for the switch to Medicaid managed care, State Auditor Adam Edelen said Wednesday. He sent the Cabinet for Health and Family Services 10 recommendations to improve the system, which provides...
- State's Medicaid Program Will Be Handled By Managed Care Companies Starting Tomorrow
Update, Nov. 1: Kentucky Voices for Health, a coalition of more than 250 health care organizations, individuals and advocates, released its views on the move to managed care, which they said must be as much about improving the quality of health care as...
- Feds Ok Managed-care Medicaid; Firms Advertise For Enrollees
The move to managed care for Kentucky's Medicaid patients is one step further to being implemented. The federal Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services have approved the state's plan to have three managed-care organizations provide care for...
- Health Secretary Tells Legislators Medicaid Budget Has Been Balanced By Moving All Beneficiaries To Managed Care
The switch to managed care organizations has fixed Kentucky's Medicaid shortfall, with Janie Miller, secretary of health and family services, calling the budget "balanced." She said the projected savings from moving to managed care will take care...
Health News
Medicaid's move to managed care delayed until Nov. 1; hospitals need more time to sign contracts
The move to managed care, which the state has touted as the answer to improve the quality of its Medicaid system and solve a budget deficit, has been delayed by a month in response to the Kentucky Hospital Association saying hospitals need more time to sign contracts and prepare for implementation.
"We have made great progress in Medicaid managed care since we first announced the contract awards in July," said Janie Miller, secretary for the Cabinet for Health and Family Services. "Thousands of providers have signed up with the managed care organizations ... but we still need the hospitals to sign contracts before we can implement managed care across the commonwealth."
Mike Rust, president of the KHA, said of about 100 hospitals that will be affected by the changes, only about 20 have signed contracts so far, reports Deborah Yetter of The Courier-Journal.
Four managed-care organizations, including the previously established Passport Health Plan in Jefferson and surrounding counties, will take over health-care management of the state's 730,000 Medicaid recipients. The companies will be paid a per-patient, per-month amount set by contract negotiations. Because they won't be paid using a fee-for-service model ? believed to be more costly ? and will try to streamline care, the move is expected to save $1.3 billion in the next three years, Miller has said.
Earlier this month, Kentucky got the green light from the federal Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services to proceed with the transition to managed care. (Read more)
- Passport Health Claims State Violated Bidding Process And Will Make Medicaid Overpayments In Jefferson County As A Result
Passport Health Plan has charged that the state of Kentucky has violated its own bidding process and will spend as much as $80 million more than necessary per year under its new Medicaid managed-care contracts for the Jefferson County region. Tom Loftus...
- State And Companies Were Unprepared For Quick Move To Managed Care, State Auditor Concludes
Kentucky officials and the companies in charge were unprepared for the switch to Medicaid managed care, State Auditor Adam Edelen said Wednesday. He sent the Cabinet for Health and Family Services 10 recommendations to improve the system, which provides...
- State's Medicaid Program Will Be Handled By Managed Care Companies Starting Tomorrow
Update, Nov. 1: Kentucky Voices for Health, a coalition of more than 250 health care organizations, individuals and advocates, released its views on the move to managed care, which they said must be as much about improving the quality of health care as...
- Feds Ok Managed-care Medicaid; Firms Advertise For Enrollees
The move to managed care for Kentucky's Medicaid patients is one step further to being implemented. The federal Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services have approved the state's plan to have three managed-care organizations provide care for...
- Health Secretary Tells Legislators Medicaid Budget Has Been Balanced By Moving All Beneficiaries To Managed Care
The switch to managed care organizations has fixed Kentucky's Medicaid shortfall, with Janie Miller, secretary of health and family services, calling the budget "balanced." She said the projected savings from moving to managed care will take care...