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W.Va. Medicaid redesign cost state money
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- West Virginia's three-year experiment with a redesigned health-care plan for the poor led to an increase in the number of Medicaid recipients seeking care at hospital emergency rooms -- a practice the program was supposed to reduce, according to a report released last week.
Most Medicaid recipients were 8 percent more likely to seek care at hospital emergency rooms in West Virginia under the former Mountain Health Choices program, the study found. The state scrapped the redesigned Medicaid program in September 2010, after federal regulations stipulated that states couldn't force Medicaid recipients into plans with stripped-down benefits.
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W.Va. Medicaid redesign cost state money
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- West Virginia's three-year experiment with a redesigned health-care plan for the poor led to an increase in the number of Medicaid recipients seeking care at hospital emergency rooms -- a practice the program was supposed to reduce, according to a report released last week.
Most Medicaid recipients were 8 percent more likely to seek care at hospital emergency rooms in West Virginia under the former Mountain Health Choices program, the study found. The state scrapped the redesigned Medicaid program in September 2010, after federal regulations stipulated that states couldn't force Medicaid recipients into plans with stripped-down benefits.
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