Medicaid managed care needs different strategies

The increasing popularity of Medicaid managed care means both physicians and Medicaid patients need to be prepared for adjustments in the way the health system operates, a report issued by the Journal of the American Medical Association asserts.

"It is clear that the old way of doing business in Medicaid will no longer suffice," says Arnold M. Epstein, MD, professor and chair of the department of health policy and management at Harvard’s School of Public Health in Cambridge, MA. "It’s possible that managed care will be much better, but there are dangers."

While experts do not foresee widespread problems, managed care providers may face special difficulty with Medicaid beneficiaries because they are accustomed to working with middle-class populations. Consequently, practitioners may not know how to handle issues, such as poverty, illiteracy, and difficulty with transportation.

Conversely, Medicaid enrollees may be unfamiliar with managed care procedures. t