Federal government throws up roadblock to Florida’s Medicaid reform, By Jermy Cox, August 23, 2010, Florida Times-Union: “Federal health officials want changes to be made to the Medicaid experiment that has put private managed-care companies in charge of covering thousands of patients in Northeast Florida. In a letter last week, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services told state officials that it wouldn’t extend the program through an expedited process, as Florida had sought. Instead, the agency said it wanted to undertake a more rigorous review that would take into account ‘issues that have been raised in reviews’ of the program. The letter didn’t specify what issues federal officials want to address. While internal reviews have painted a positive picture of the program, it has come under fire from critics and some outside analysts. Expectations were high in 2005 when Florida won federal approval to place Medicaid patients in certain counties into privately run managed-care plans. Duval and Broward counties kicked off the reform program in 2006. Baker, Clay and Nassau followed in 2007…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty