Report calls for expanded Georgia Medicaid managed care

Atlanta Business Chronicle

Dave Williams

A consultant is recommending Georgia enroll all of its Medicaid patients in managed care, including those now receiving traditional fee-for-service coverage.

A report released Friday by the Georgia Department of Community Health (DCH) suggests that more than 357,000 Medicaid recipients enrolled in fee for service – primarily the aged, blind and disabled – join the 1.1 million being covered through managed care.

The report, put together by Navigant Consulting, Inc. of Chicago, argues that aged, blind and disabled patients covered through fee-for-service plans don’t have access to care-management programs that provide chronic-care services they need more than most patient groups.

At the same time, the report maintains that streamlining Georgia Medicaid to a single coverage delivery system would reduce administrative costs.

“Now that the report has been delivered, we will begin our review and analysis … building on what is currently working and rebuilding what can be working better,” DCH Commissioner David Cook said.

“During this evaluation process, we will identify opportunities to eliminate unnecessary and costly bureaucratic red tape, ease administrative burdens, enhance efficiencies and improve access and health care outcomes.”

Navigant was awarded a $2 million contract last summer and spent the last several months of 2011 working on the report.