By Lynn Hatter
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wfsu/local-wfsu-983974.mp3
Tallahassee, FL – Supporters of privatized Medicaid say it will help keep more seniors in their homes. They also say it will reserve nursing homes for the sickest-of-the sick. The tradeoff could be more demand for community-based care providers. And as Lynn Hatter reports, the state is still grappling with what to do when more people turn to those programs.
Today there are nearly 34-thousand Floridians on Medicaid on waiting lists for home-based services. Under the state's plan to move Medicaid into a managed-care, seniors would be the first to enroll in the new private Medicaid plans. Florida's Medicaid Bureau Chief Beth Kidder says it doesn't make the waiting list problem, worse, but it's not exactly a great help either.
"By changing the way care is delivered, putting it through managed care it doesn't change the number demanding service or the total appropriation, so those things stay the same."
Kidder says managed care CAN help in the way money is spent. She says managed care will allow insurance companies to decide how to move resources into areas that need it the most like home and community-based care. Opponents of privatized Medicaid worry managed-care companies will squeeze providers and cut care in order to gain larger profits.