CALIFORNIA: L.A. COUNTY MANAGED CARE PLAN HITS SNAG
Health Care Financing Administration officials have furtherThis is part of the California Healthline Daily Edition, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.
delayed mandatory enrollment in L.A. Care, Los Angeles County's
ambitious mandatory Medicaid managed care program, Los Angeles
Times reports. This marks the second time that HCFA has delayed
mandatory assignment for Medi-Cal recipients who fail to choose a
managed care plan. Mandatory assignment, which was scheduled to
begin September 1, will now begin October 1 at the earliest.
Mandatory assignment was delayed for the first time in March (see
AHL 3/28). L.A. Care is a partnership of seven HMOs and is
expected to enroll about 600,000 Medi-Cal beneficiaries when
fully operational. Beneficiaries can continue to enroll
voluntarily.
THE BEEF
HCFA officials "want to see more progress in an enrollment
and community outreach plan before allowing L.A. Care to proceed
full throttle." Los Angeles County has submitted a detailed plan
to HCFA outlining the steps it will take to "restore federal
concerns." Douglas Porter, deputy director of medical care
services for California, said he expects that the state simply
needs "to demonstrate in the next month that it is 'on track.'"
However, according to Anthony Rodgers, L.A. Care's CEO, the plan
has 40,000 fewer enrollees than originally anticipated. This
"means that the organization's budget of $1 million per month is
half of what was projected." Rogers said, "I don't want to cry
wolf. We will know in 30 to 60 days whether this will create a
significant problem for us" (Marquis, 6/17).