A multiphase effort to reduce the cost of caring for about 30,000 Medicaid recipients with expensive health needs has led to the state approval of three provider-led managed-care companies, including one with local ties.
The approval follows enactment of a new state law designed to provide improved care and outcomes using “wrap around services.”
Talk Business Arkansas reports Act 775 of 2017, the Medicaid Provider-Led Organized Care Act, is designed to allow providers to create a type of insurance network targeted solely for those in Arkansas with severe intellectual and physical medical needs.
Brandi Hinkle, former deputy chief of communications for the Arkansas Department of Human Services, says the process creates a network of therapists, counselors, doctors and other providers who develop care coordination for the patients. The coordination reduces duplication of services, seeks to put all caregivers on the same page and ideally addresses issues before they become a more serious problem for the patient and a more expensive solution for the providers.
The new model of care is known as the Provider-led Arkansas Shared Savings Entity or PASSE.
On Monday, Arkansas Insurance Department Commissioner Alan Kerr granted PASSE authority to three of five groups who have applied.
Empower Healthcare Solutions, LLC, is one of the three groups approved on Monday.
EHS is comprised of a number of companies, including Arkansas Community Health Network.
The Arkansas Democrat Gazette reports Arkansas Community Health Network is a coalition that includes Baxter Regional Health System, North Arkansas Medical System, Unity Health and White River Health System.
Hinkle says the program should reduce costs by organizing care, and not just by managing finances. To that point, she says the agency conducts annual reviews to make sure patient care is not reduced in order to simply improve finances.
WebReadyTM Powered by WireReady® NSI