Molina's managed-care Medicaid patients to be placed in fee-for-service system

With health care providers fleeing Molina Healthcare’s managed-care Medicaid network in much of the Springfield area, state officials decided Friday to “disenroll” all 26,750 of the company’s local members and place them in traditional fee-for-service Medicaid on May 1 and beyond.

The move was commended by Southern Illinois University School of Medicine officials, who had worried that the growing lack of doctors and hospitals in Molina’s network would lead to potentially dangerous and stressful gaps in care for people unaware that their health care providers had severed ties with California-based Molina. SIU has served 17,000 Molina members.

“We are very pleased to hear that this action is being taken so that the potential lack of access to care for our most vulnerable patients will be minimized,” said Dr. Harald Lausen, chief medical officer for SIU Medicine, the medical school’s Springfield-based, multi-specialty physician practice group.

“While there have been gaps in specific types of care since the beginning of 2017, we have made every effort to provide or facilitate access to care for our patients.”

Read more: http://www.sj-r.com/news/20170407/molinas-managed-care-medicaid-patients-to-be-placed-in-fee-for-service-system