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

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So I view <strong>Medicaid</strong> managed care as a great opportunity for substance
abuse treatment to move forward in ways that many community-based
organizations and treatment centers desire.
Ms. CHRISTENSEN. Yes?
QUESTION. [Inaudible.]
Ms. CHRISTENSEN. The question is about putting long-term care
into a managed care system.
Ms. BARTELS. We released the proposal to integrate long-term
care with what we call primary and acute health care in the State
of Wisconsin, which would have been a very groundbreaking idea
for elderly and disabled persons, and it was very, very threatening
to the advocacy communities, managed care in general, and the
whole concept of mixing medical with social services was threatening.
In our State, so many of those services, as I alluded to in my
testimony, are county-based. It created a real firestorm of controversy.
Counties want to have the first right of refusal on being
the managed care entities for this integrated program.
So we are seeking, through less organized, more intimate conversations
with the interested parties, to see whether or not we can
identify some areas of agreement before we proceed.
I think in general, it is a positive step, because people are talking
about managed care being a positive thing for the elderly and disabled,
but how to do it in a way that meets consumers' needs and
does not upset the apple cart too much is a big challenge. But we
are still committed to moving forward in that general direction. We
have also been carving out long-term care from other health care
services and trying to integrate health care services with the supportive
social services that many disabled and elderly persons meet
and desire.
Ms. CHRISTENSEN. Any other questions. [No response.]
Thank you so much. This has been incredible. We really appreciate
your time and effort.
[Whereupon the forum was concluded.]