One Regional Care Organization Contract Could Cost State $28 Million

A consulting firm tasked with implementing Alabama’s new Medicaid managed-care system has been paid nearly $5 million more than the original contract amount and recently received a second one-year extension that could nearly triple the cost of the project.

Navigant Consulting, a Chicago-based firm, agreed back in December 2013 to implement Alabama’s new Regional Care Organizations, as part of the state’s Medicaid overhaul, and signed a two-year, $12.1 million contract.

That contract stated Navigant would “provide technical assistance and resource support for the implementation of the (RCOs).” The RCOs would move Alabama’s Medicaid program from a fee-for-service structure to a system in which providers, such as hospitals and doctors, charge Medicaid a flat fee for services and then work with the patients to lower health care costs.

“Our goal is to successfully implement a new healthcare delivery system by 2016,” RCO Implementation Project Manager Paul Brannan said at the time.

Read more: http://www.alreporter.com/one-rco-contract-could-cost-state-28-million/