Medicaid HMO Idea a Bust State Pulls Plug on Plan

Williams, Dave, The Florida Times Union

ATLANTA -- Just five years ago, both of Georgia's candidates for governor were touting managed care as the solution to the state's soaring Medicaid budget.

The next year, re-elected Gov. Zell Miller launched his bid to enroll the poor and disabled in health-maintenance organizations to begin cutting Medicaid costs that had doubled during the previous five years.

Yet, last week's vote to close the Medicaid HMO at Atlanta's Grady Memorial Hospital at the end of this year put the last health-maintenance organization serving Georgia Medicaid recipients out of business.

Depending on whom you ask, what happened between 1995 and 1999 either was an opportunity for major savings squandered because of mismanagement or an unavoidable failure to graft managed care onto an incompatible system.

HMOs save money by negotiating group discount fees with health care providers. Medicaid HMOs get flat monthly fees from the state for each recipient enrolled.

But …

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Publication information: Article title: Medicaid HMO Idea a Bust State Pulls Plug on Plan. Contributors: Williams, Dave - Author. Newspaper title: The Florida Times Union. Publication date: October 3, 1999. Page number: Not available. © 2007 The Florida Times-Union. COPYRIGHT 1999 Gale Group.

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