Legislative agency pans Medicaid experiment
TALLAHASSEE (AP) – The Florida Legislature’s watchdog agency on Thursday recommended against expanding an experimental Medicaid program, once touted by former Gov. Jeb Bush as a national model, unless more data can be obtained.
The Office of Program Policy Analysis & Government Accountability issued a final report saying little data is available to show the pilot program that uses private health management companies has improved access to medical care or its quality since its October 2006 launch. Such tracking information is not expected until January.
The agency also found a lack of data on whether any cost savings have resulted from the program, which began in Broward and Duval counties and later expanded to Baker, Clay and Nassau counties. Bush obtained legislative and federal approval for the pilot as a response to rapidly rising Medicaid costs.
The report says another reason to hold off on adding the Panhandle and South Florida’s Miami-Dade and Monroe counties to the experiment is because that would cost the state an additional $7.1 million in the budget year starting July 1. It also cited questions raised by patients, doctors and other stakeholders and “symptoms of plan instability.”
Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Holly Benson, in a response published with the report, took issue with the some of agency’s comments – but not its recommendation to hold off on expansion.
Benson’s agency administers Medicaid in Florida. The state-federal program for the poor and elderly typically lets patients see their own doctors, who then are reimbursed.
Under the pilot, though, the program pays private companies a set amount for handling a certain number of patients. The companies then decide how to care for the patients including which doctors they can see.