Medicaid Reform Compromise Ready for Final Vote in Senate

A package reforming Medicaid looks ready to pass on the final day of the legislative session as the Florida Senate prepped a compromise with the House that includes less provider service networks than the House originally wanted. Overall, the plan still moves Medicaid recipients into managed-care providers in an effort to reduce costs. Lawmakers have targeted the program for reform since it takes up nearly 30 percent of the budget at a time when legislators are taking on cuts to education and other services to fill a $3.8 billion budget hole.

"We've really given flexibility to the individual who's receiving Medicaid benefits to make choices that are the best for them and their family," said Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, the Senate's point man on Medicaid reform.

The bill is based largely on a pilot program in Broward County and four other North Florida counties that increased the role of managed-care companies. Sen. Eleanor Sobel, D-Hollywood, expressed concern that health management organizations (HMOs) would abandon Medicaid patients, as many did in the pilot program, and provider service networks (PSNs), which are comprised of some nonprofit hospitals, would be unable to pick up the slack.

Negron thinks there is ample time for PSNs, which work on a fee-for-service basis, to adapt to the new paradigm of service based on meeting contract requirements, since the reform package allows PSNs to keep their current business model for the next two years.

"Ithink the bill goes out of its way to give PSNs every opportunity to succeed," Negron said.

Full story to follow.