Medicaid Reform – Florida

State Medicaid reforms lead to fewer doctor visits, By Jeremy Cox, July 14,2010 Florida Times-Union: “Northeast Florida’s Medicaid recipients are making fewer trips to the doctor for chronic illnesses since state officials outsourced the government-subsidized health insurance program to private managed care companies. But it remains unclear from the analysis performed by the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, which oversees the state’s Medicaid program, whether they’re healthier for it. Medicaid reform was launched in 2006 in Duval and Broward counties to test whether HMOs could rein in the state’s Medicaid spending. Baker, Clay and Nassau counties were added a year later. A University of Florida analysis last year suggested that medical costs were rising in reform counties at a slower rate compared with other parts of the state. But critics quickly lined up to attribute those savings to patients being denied care or being forced into bureaucratic tangles by the managed-care contractors…”