Funny how State finds $ for Medicaid HMOs; crisis eases

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Funny how the state can find money for the HMO's and reduce the cuts for income eligible Medicaid citizens, but not for DD eligible Medicaid citizens! The developmentally disabled seem to get more cuts.

Please call your senators and state representatives and ask them why. CLick here for their contact information

State finds $ for Medicaid HMOs; crisis eases

8/29/2008 © Florida Health News Breaking news: The Agency for Health Care Administration has notified the managed-care plans active in the "Medicaid Reform" counties that their rate cuts on Sept. 1 will average just 3 percent, not 5 percent as previously feared. That was enough to persuade AMERIGROUP Florida to call off plans to leave the pilot program, and both of the other companies that had notified the state they were pulling out of the Reform project were leaning toward doing the same as of 4:30 p.m. "We're very happy we're going to be able to continue serving our members in Broward County," said AMERIGROUP spokesman Kent . "We understand that this is not an easy time for the state. We're glad they arrived at a solution."Details weren't available Friday afternoon on how AHCA's recalculations of its budget cuts reduced the impact on the plans. More details will be available on Tuesday, spokesman Senra said.In addition to AMERIGROUP, the companies that notified AHCA they would be pulling out of the project at the earliest possible date, Dec. 1, were UnitedHealthcare of Florida and WellCare Health Plans, which is the parent company for both HealthEase and Staywell Medicaid plans. Their threatened pullout would have left AHCA in a crunch to find new plans for more than 100,000 Medicaid patients in Broward, Duval and three rural counties involved in the privatization project. The dilemma was outlined in Florida Health News on Thursday.