- Medicaid officials seek changes to Medically Needy Program, By Jim Saunders, May 8, 2012, Pensacola News Journal: “Florida Medicaid officials have asked the federal government to approve major changes in a program that serves tens of thousands of people with costly medical conditions, seeking to install a type of managed care and require monthly premium payments. The Agency for Health Care Administration, carrying out a 2011 law, requested changes in the state’s Medically Needy program. In a document sent to the federal government in late April, the agency said the proposed changes would improve care for beneficiaries…”
- Private Medicaid providers enrolling in northwest Louisiana, By Melody Brumble, May 8, 2012, Shreveport Times: “Rhonda Matthews hopes Louisiana’s privately run Medicaid program, dubbed Bayou Health, brings more benefits than changes. Matthews quizzed representatives of five health plans at a recent enrollment meeting in Haughton before signing up with Amerigroup. Her sons, ages 16 and 5, have ADHD. She wants them to keep the same doctor and get the same level of care. She’s also covered by Medicaid. Louisiana started working to privatize its Medicaid program in 2010 primarily to save money. In theory, the health plans will provide greater access to preventive and prenatal care and specialists. The savings would come from keeping people with chronic illnesses out of the emergency room and babies out of newborn intensive care units…”
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty