Category: Amazing Free Content

Soundtrack for today’s RoundUp pessimist readers- http://bit.ly/2wO7zhZ

For optimist readers-  http://bit.ly/2wOp6GQ

RED AND WHITE SMOKE SEEN ON DAY 62 FROM THE TOWERS OF THE MCO NEGOTIATION COUNCIL- After a few months of dancing around the issue of insufficient rates in the press, Iowa officials and MCO folks are in closed-door sessions to figure it out. New price negotiations were expected to conclude in July, but now its looking like mid to late August. In addition to price it looks like plans may be asking for more control over care management and utilization. You know, the things they are on the hook for. The number 1 complaint I hear from plan clients is they are held accountable for things they are not allowed the tools to impact. Hear, here.

 

PLANS BICKERING IN THE MAGNOLIA STATE- Amerigroup and Mississippi True are protesting the late-June MCO awards. United, Magnolia Health and Molina all won another round on the MS Medicaid ride. Mississippi True is a new provider-sponsored plan arguing that the RFP requirements around experience were designed to lock out any bidders besides the incumbents. Three state lawmakers are petitioning the Governor to instruct the Caid agency to take another look. Its nice to see lawmakers take such an interest in the Medicaid procurement process. I am sure they are Medicaid experts with a lot of insight into who the Medicaid agency should select and how they should evaluate proposals.

 

TARHEEL STATE SUBMITS REVISED MANAGED CARE PROPOSAL- This one is from the new Guv (Cooper), updating the one from 14 months ago by the old Guv (McCrory). Right now its shaping up to be focused on integrating physical and behavioral health (makes absolute since given the efforts in the NC market in recent years), telemedicine (a bit of a surprise), opioids and care management. No word yet on whether The Good Guvnr Cooper is looking to horsetrade with CMS to expand Caid enrollment. Let’s get managed care in there first, fellas.

 

IOWA DID NOT COLLECT $700K IN RX REBATES. SUBTRACTS AMOUNT FROM NEXT SFY BUDGET REQUEST- Just kidding on that last part. Silly kids! Medicaid spending NEVER, EVER goes down. If it did, the pink elephants at the center of the earth’s core would stop marching and our planet would fall from its orbit and go hurtling into space and we would all die because the Republicans hate everybody and only Democrats are GoodPeople. At least that’s what General Spend-It-All in charge of the Resistance tells me.

 

WONDERS NEVER CEASE. NEW CLAIMS PAYMENT SYSTEM IN THE CENTENNIAL STATE BEGINS LIFE ON STATUS: SNAFU- Colorado’s new claims payment system (interChange- note the lowercase first letter, but the Capital letter in the middle of the name. That means its sophisticated.) is not a hit with providers (at least the ones being interviewed). According to them, claims that previously sailed through are now being rejected. Many providers are out a good bit of cash and have decided to stop taking any new Medicaid patients until the problems are resolved. In defense of the new system all providers had to re-enroll during implementation, and many of the problems are being seen with ones who failed to do so. Other interesting parts of this story: The vendor is DXC Technology, which I guess is maybe a new MMIS-ish vendor? And the contract is for $187M over 8 years. That has to be the cheapest claims payment system I have ever heard of – even when the price does double like we all know it will. Hear that sound? That’s the sound of change orders piling up on some project manager’s excel spreadsheet somewhere.

LOOK UP DUMPSTER FIRE IN THE DICTIONARY AND YOU WILL FIND A PICTURE OF THE ILLINOIS STATE BUDGET- Its just terrible. Terrible. The stories won’t stop. This week: 10 IL SNFs were allowed to continue their lawsuit against the state for not getting paid the correct rate for 4 years. IL NPR also ran a story about various pediatricians out hundreds of thousands of dollars as they wait for the state to pay.

  

AND APPARENTLY JAMES COMEY IS IN CHARGE OF THE IL MEDICAID PRESS OFFICE?  I can honestly say I have never seen this: There was a news story this week letting the world know that CountyCare is a winner in the IL MCO bids. All the other winners (and losers) will have to wait until later to find out the rest of the results. Appears there’s a leaker in IL someplace.

  

I WILL BE AT MESC NEXT WEEK, WILL YOU? If so send me a note and let’s meet up.

I WILL BE AT MHPA 2017 IN OCT., WILL YOU? You can check it out here – http://bit.ly/2twCi5L Every 100th registrant will get a free Medicaid Foundations Course registration (our online training course).

FARRIS’S FANTASTIC FRAUD FOLLIES– And now for everybody’s favorite paragraph … Not enough space this week. Lots of fraudster goodies for you in the twitter feed, though.

That’s it for this week. As always, please send me a note with your thoughts to clay@mostlymedicaid.com or give me a buzz at 919.727.9231. Get outside (practice your eclipse poses) and keep running the race (you know who you are).

 

FULL, FREE newsletter@ mostlymedicaid.com . News that didn’t make it and sources for those that did: twitter @mostlymedicaid . Trystero: Viśvada uḷisalu tande maganige kaḷuhisalāgide

Soundtrack for today’s RoundUp pessimist readers- http://bit.ly/2vyPGXY

For optimist readers-  http://bit.ly/2vyM3kT

 

MONDAY’S STATE MEDICAID SPOTLIGHT SHOW FEATURES PRESTON CODY, DIRECTOR OF WA MEDICAID PROGRAM INTEGRITY- After a long break, our State Spotlight show is back. Sign up free here if you are not already – http://www.mostlymedicaid.com/?page_id=1739

YOUR MEDICAID DRIVER IS 3 MINUTES AWAY- The Greater Buffalo ACO has inked a deal with Lfyt to carry bennies to their appointments. NET is a big, fat, tempting budget item that a small set of providers have had to themselves for years. I am amazed it took this long to “disrupt” this “market.”

PREZ USES BROAD DISCRETION BUILT INTO ACA AND HEALTHCARE POOH-BAHS CLUTCH PEARLS- Just kidding. Trump’s not doing crazy things allowed in ACA like suspending the individual or employer mandate during an election cycle (what kind of cynical, Machiavellian tyrant would do stuff like that?). In all fairness the whole CSR payments drama is a perfect analogue to the abuse of power that was set up nicely in ACA. He does really have them by the яйца (yaytsa if your pc doesn’t have the right font installed), doesn’t’ he? CMS is also encouraging states to submit waivers to alter the eligibility conditions (i.e. all the work requirements waivers you’ve been hearing about) and in some cases the benefit packages (ex: Iowa got approval to limit NET). #Resist!

UPDATE ON MA EMPLOYER FEE FOR MEDICAID- Covered this last week. Seems the outrage was less about forcing employers to cough up $750 per employee on Caid and more about daring to tie that to an expected effort to reduce spending. The Good Guvn’r has repented of this sin and now the deal simply taxes employers (a total $200M in new fees) and does not dare attempt the evil, hateful- dare I say it, Republican? – cuts (would have been $150M in Medicaid spending cuts tied to the tax). Forgot Draconian. APA style manual says you must use “draconian” when talking about Medicaid cuts.

THREE NEW STUDIES OUT ON MEDICAID AND KIDS- Good sumhttps://woocommerce.com/my-account/tickets/?id=605141mary at the AAP blog – http://bit.ly/2wruJLd . One looks at Caid costs by level of illness and concludes that a full 1/3 of all costs are for kids with chronic disease. The other 2 look at child ER super users and Rx costs.

 

CLEVELAND CLINIC ON THE REBOUND AFTER GETTING DUMPED- Seems CareSource OH ditched Cleveland Clinic from the network recently and it stung. So now CC has started dating Molina- this is the first time CC has been in network for Molina. CareSource and CC have said they will cement the break up if no agreement can be reached until Sept 1.

IF YOU LIKE YOUR MEDICAID INSURANCE, YOU CAN KEEP YOUR MEDICAID INSURANCE- A recent national survey found that Medicaid members gave their plans 78 more points than commercial members (out of a total of 1,000 points- 0.078% diff). So, when its free, its less than 1% more popular than something that costs an average of $5k + OOP when you do pay for it for a family of 4. Sounds awesome. Break out the champagne. Ready the confetti. Or maybe do all that you can to eliminate meaningful commercial coverage so there will be nothing to compare to and the peasants will accept whatever you give them all for “free”?

  

FARRIS’S FANTASTIC FRAUD FOLLIES– And now for everybody’s favorite paragraph. LaMar Taylor of Bowie MD was charged this week for scamming Medicaid out of $600k using his day-treatment services company to submit bogus claims. Bertha Blanco, an employee of the FL HHS agency was popped this week for her role in a $1B Medicaid fraud scheme. Her crime? In exchange for bribes, she helped a shady nursing home operator keep their license, which was easy since she was a state inspector. It was a slow week this week – only a few cases. But we did rack up $1.06B in tax payer loss. Quality, not quantity dear readers. Mrs. Blanco – you win this week’s award!

I WILL BE AT MESC IN 1 WEEK, WILL YOU? If so send me a note and let’s meet up.

I WILL BE AT MHPA 2017 IN OCT., WILL YOU? You can check it out here – http://bit.ly/2twCi5L Every 100th registrant will get a free Medicaid Foundations Course registration (our online training course).

 

That’s it for this week. As always, please send me a note with your thoughts to clay@mostlymedicaid.com or give me a buzz at 919.727.9231. Get outside (tomatoes are finally red) and keep running the race (you know who you are).

FULL, FREE newsletter@ mostlymedicaid.com . News that didn’t make it and sources for those that did: twitter @mostlymedicaid . Trystero: Sang Rama ngutus Sang Putra nylametaké jagat