Massey Whorley, policy adviser to Governor McAuliffe
A new forecast of Virginia’s $10 billion Medicaid program supposes that the implementation of managed-care reforms will slow runaway costs, reducing growth in spending to 2.5% in the first year and 3.4% the second year, down from an 7.8% increase in the current fiscal year. While the program still will cost an additional $670.6 million over three years, that’s a lot less than it would have been, reports the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
The McAuliffe administration is expanding the number of people, primarily elderly and disabled, who will receive services through managed-care contracts with private insurers.
“A huge part of [the reduction] is the effect of reforms and the amount of money being moved from fee-for-service to managed care,” said McAuliffe policy adviser Massey S.J. Whorley. The number will swell from about 30,000 people under managed care to almost 200,000. Explains the T-D:
Fee-for-service has been the traditional way of reimbursing providers for services to Medicaid patients in an uncoordinated fashion. Managed care allows the state to shift the risks of serving patients to insurers who are paid a fixed amount per person, per month to coordinate their care.
“The plans are taking a very substantial risk,” said Doug Gray, executive director of the Virginia Association of Health Plans, which includes five of the six companies that are providing managed care to more than 216,000 elderly and disabled Virginians. “These are very sick people who could have very high costs. The commonwealth has protected themselves from costs over and above the contract amount.”
The attraction for insurers is the potential to lower the cost of care and keep the difference, while saving the state money, but Gray cautioned against expecting an immediate windfall as the state expands managed care to riskier populations. “We are hopeful and optimistic there will be savings, but I wouldn’t want to be overly aggressive about promising,” he said.
House Appropriations Chairman S. Chris Jones, R-Suffolk, said the reforms are working, but he would hesitate to read too much into the initial forecast. “This is the right step to have taken. … There is no doubt the reforms are starting to have an impact.”
Bacon’s bottom line: Everybody cross your fingers and hope this works. Out-of-control Medicaid spending has soaked up a disproportionate share of new tax dollars generated by the state, forcing legislators to under-fund other critical priorities like K-12 schools and higher-ed. The shift to managed care may ease the fiscal pain for the next biennial budget.
