About 90 percent of people on Medicaid are enrolled into a managed-care program. A proposal floating around in the Ohio Legislature would increase that number by bringing people with long-term health problems into the fold.
But Ohio’s nursing homes and assisted-living communities are fighting back.
Peter Van Runkle is with the Ohio Health Care Association, which represents nearly a thousand nursing home and assisted-living facilities. He says there’s no proof that managed care provides better service for people living with long-term health issues. And he says the switch is an obvious benefit for health insurance companies.
“Of course it’s more business. I mean they’re looking at a billion dollars or more of additional revenue,” he said.
Van Runkle says there’s already a test run happening in the state called My Care Ohio, a pilot program he says isn’t working. But the Ohio Association of Health Plans, which lobbies for the health insurance industry, says managed care increases accountability, and that it’s proven to work in other states.
The proposal was taken out of the House budget bill before it was sent to the Senate.
