Are Branstad’s Medicaid claims ‘smoke and mirrors?’

Iowa is unable to provide data to back up Gov. Terry Branstad's claims that says a controversial move to privatize Medicaid has resulted in thousands of additional contracts with medical providers, a Des Moines Register investigation has found.

The governor's office asserted in a July 25 press release that the state has at least 9,300 more contracts with doctors; 3,200 more contracts with nurse practitioners and nearly 1,300 more contracts with physical therapists than it did before private companies began managing its Medicaid program in April.

For some types of health care providers, that represents a 140 percent or greater increase in contracts than when the state managed the program, according to the governor’s office.

If accurate, the massive increase would mean that hundreds of thousands of poor or disabled Iowans on the program now have far greater access to medical care.

Read more: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/investigations/2016/10/10/branstads-medicaid-claims-smoke-and-mirrors/91630722/