(DES MOINES) – Today, at the Administration’s weekly press conference, Gov. Branstad, Lt. Gov. Reynolds and representatives from each of the three managed care organizations (MCOs) tasked with providing health care delivery for Iowa Medicaid patients, highlighted a number of value-added services that each MCO is now providing for those patients. Medicaid Modernization officially launched on Friday, April 1.
Cynthia MacDonald of Amerigroup Iowa, Inc., Cheryl Harding from Amerihealth Caritas Iowa Inc., and Kim Foltz from UnitedHealthCare Plan of the River Valley, Inc., each talked about specific benefits that their respective MCO is offering now under managed care that patients would not have access to under Old Medicaid. Some of these benefits include pregnancy and prenatal care programs, a 24-hour nurse hotline, boys and girls club memberships, weight management programs and tobacco cessation programs.
“Benefits for Medicaid patients do not change under managed care. Additionally, there are over 80 additional value-added benefits that Medicaid patients now have access to,” said Branstad. “These are exactly the types of additional services that are going to make lasting, meaningful impacts in the health of our Medicaid population.”
Lt. Gov. Reynolds added, “Through managed care, Iowans’ health care delivery will improve by offering preventatives services above and beyond what was available to them under old Medicaid. By reducing emergency room visits, hospitalizations and surgeries, and eliminating duplicative services, patients will have better health outcomes; which has been our goal from Day 1.”
To view a MCO comparison chart of value-added services, please click here.
For a resource on MCO-specific materials, please click here.
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