Medicaid Managed Care = Risky (BIG) Business

The Washington Post printed a recent expose on the coming explosion in Medicaid managed care opportunities, coupled with the tremendous challenges of caring for lower-income, vulnerable beneficiaries, especially dual eligibles. 

Texas is moving some 425,000 beneficiaries into health plans this year.  California began moving 380,000 older and disabled patients into private plans in June.  Louisiana debuted managed-care contracts in July, affecting 875,000 enrollees.  In October, New York plans to begin moving about 1.5 million patients into managed care.  Florida is negotiating with the federal government to move most of its 3 million Medicaid enrollees into private plans.  With the expansion of Medicaid managed care underway in at least 20 states and the surge of enrollment in 2014, thanks to the ACA, insurers expect $60 billion in new annual revenue. 

We’ve long said that by 2015 we expect the entire TANF population (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families — the “moms and kids”) population to be in health plans, with millions of dual eligibles to follow suit.  With a new office in the CMS Innovation Center dedicated to Federal/state collaboration on the duals, that segment will transition to managed care quickly as states desperately try to reduce the #1 item in every state budget: long-term care for the elderly and disabled.  The “A/B/Ds” (Aged/Blind/Disabled) are the “final frontier” for health plans, and worth upwards of $300B annually — but not without their perils in this climate of austerity.