Legislators continue to ask about Medicaid payment delays and what can be done about them

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Kentucky's Republican lawmakers charged this week that the companies managing Medcaid care in the state are still not paying their bills promptly. According to Sen. Joe Bowen, R-Owensboro, in the year since the state moved more than a half a million people to managed care, the amount owed to hospitals has doubled. Beth Musgrave of the Lexington Herald-Leader reports that the change to managed care was made to reduce costs in the federal-state program that pays health care costs for the poor and disabled.

According to Kentucky Medicaid Commissioner Lawrence Kissner, WellCare and Kentucky Spirit have been cited by the state Department of Insurance for failing to meet their obligation to the state and the hospitals. A third managed care company, Coventry, has not been cited.The two companies, notes Musgrave, have submitted plans of correction to the Department of Insurance.

None of the managed care companies testified at Tuesdays' Interim Joint Committee on Health and Welfare where Bowen and other Republicans voiced their complaints.Despite the payment problems, Kisser said that the move to managed care has helped stem rising costs in the Medicaid program. As of October, he said, Medicaid was $40 million under budget. (Read more)