Medicaid Managed Care - U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging

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Communicating Wits Vulnerable Populations: <strong>Medicaid</strong> 169
The transitions seem to be appreciated and well-received, but no evaluation has yet
been done to see if they are widely read. Finally, all magazine articles, brochures, and other
materials sent to Medica Choice <strong>Care</strong> members are written at a seventh grade reading level
to make them easier for people struggling with English to understand.
OVERCOMING THE TRANSPORTATION BARRIER
Among the respondents to the 1992 study, more than half said lack of transportation was
a barrier to visiting the doctor More than one-third said they had missed a medical appointment
during the past year. In the Native American population, the percentage was even
higher-two-thirds. Extrapolating these figures to Medica's entire <strong>Medicaid</strong> membership
meant that the number of missed appointments during 1992 equaled almost 9,000.
Four in ten respondents cited transportation as the most common reason for missing an
appointment, while two in ten said they had no one to watch their children while they went
to the doctor and another two in ten said they simply forgot. Other miscellaneous reasons
were also cited, ranging from not being able to find the doctor's address to being "too sick."
Obviously, something needed to be done. <strong>Medicaid</strong> members could not receive the quality
health care Medica's medical providers were offering if they could not get to those
providers' offices. So when Minnesota offered HMOs S80,000 each to implement a project
of their choice that would improve the state's <strong>Medicaid</strong> enrollees' access to health care,
Medica Health Plans quickly jumped at the opportunity to launch what is now known as
the Provide-A-Ride program, a free transportation service for Minnesota's <strong>Medicaid</strong>
enrollees. The Medica Foundation (now the Allina Foundation) provided an additional
S400,000 to cover the project's initial administrative and set-up costs.
Through Provide-a-Ride, which was the first transportation program of its kind in
Minnesota, Medica Health Plans' <strong>Medicaid</strong> members are offered free taxi, van, or bus transportation
to and from their health providers' offices. Members who need a ride call one of
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Medica Health Plans' access representatives, who arranges the transportation-after first
checking in a computer database to make sure that the member has a current Medica Choice
<strong>Care</strong> policy and that the doctor is under contract with Medica. If the person calling is not
a member of Medica Choice <strong>Care</strong>, the access representative refers the caller to other transportation
services or back to his or her county case worker.
Before Provide-a-Ride was started, <strong>Medicaid</strong> members could get reimbursed for taxi or
bus fare to their health care providers, but the process was not easy: the member would have