A house committee is laying the ground work to move the state’s Medicaid recipients to privatized care. Supporters and opponents are sharing what they believe it will mean for Missouri.
Dr. Chuck Hollister with the Missouri Psychological Association says he’s concerned the state will lose more Medicaid providers.
“Your Medicaid providers haven’t received an increase in reimbursement in over 25 years,” said Hollister. “There is no money left for managed care to earn a living on. When you talk about managing care, there’s nothing to manage.”
Mark Bradford with the Ozark Psychological Association says there needs to be a bigger network of providers and they need to be paid in a timely manner.
“In the managed care network, if you ask them ‘will you do work for them?’ a lot of times those providers will balk and stall because they don’t want low pay and slow pay.”
Supporters argue there are already enough Medicaid providers.
Managed care is only used throughout central Missouri, but a statewide expansion was built into the budget passed by the legislature and signed by Governor Jay Nixon. That means an additional 200,000 parents and children on Medicaid will be covered under managed care rather than fee-for-service. Under the plan, the elderly, blind and disabled would be exempt.