Another proposal for revamping Missouri's Medicaid system was heard Tuesday before a House interim committee examining ways to reform the system.
A pilot program would be created in which primary care doctors would be paid a flat fee each month for every Medicaid patient they accept – the patients, in turn, would be entitled to unlimited doctors' office visits. Hospital visits and services for other specialties would be covered separately by a state-purchased health insurance plan with high deductibles. The proposal was made by Republican committee member Keith Frederick of Rolla.
"The whole concept is that now you've got patients and physicians managing the care," Frederick told the House Interim Committee on Medicaid Transformation. "You don't need an outside third party, the managed care plan, that takes 15 to 20 percent of the money -- you don't need them anymore because the patient is incentivized not to spend to the maximum (and) the doctor has no incentive to over-test or over-operate."
Two interim committees are working on proposals to reform Medicaid during next year's legislative session. The Senate interim committee's draft report so far does not include expanding Medicaid coverage, which Governor Jay Nixon (D) sought to do earlier this year.
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