By Sascha Cordner
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wfsu/local-wfsu-979379.mp3
Tallahassee, FL – An advisory panel came together to lend their expertise on how to help the Agency for Health Care Administration, or AHCA, implement the Statewide Medicaid Managed Care Program. As Sascha Cordner reports, the Long-Term Managed Care Technical Advisory Workgroup had their first meeting Tuesday to discuss how they can operate smoothly to help AHCA meet their deadlines under the Medicaid Managed Care bill.
The advisory panel will be making recommendations to AHCA on methods to determine Medicaid eligibility, requirements for provider payments to nursing homes under the law, and methods for managing Medicare coinsurance crossover claims. Florida Association of Health Plans President and CEO Michael Garner, one of the 10 members on the panel, says this meeting was purely informational.
"At this point, this is an initial meeting to make sure we have a clear understanding of what their goals and objectives are, about what the current program is, what the law requires, and ultimately how we are going to establish what we need to accomplish and how we're going to get to that end goal because we have a very tight time period here."
...because AHCA will have already submitted amendments or waiver requests to implement the Managed Care program by August 1st. The panel's next scheduled meeting on August 26th will have already passed that deadline, but the panel will be using the time in between to pull together more information for the next meeting to make further recommendations.