Editorial: Put brakes on new Medicaid proposal

Monday, April 13, 1998 | 11:07 a.m.

GOV. Bob Miller's administration is moving forward with a plan to move Medicaid recipients into managed care, a proposal that could hurt county-owned University Medical Center.

The SUN's Art Nadler reported last week that by October 1 all individuals on Medicaid will be required to enroll with a designated health maintenance organization. Medicaid recipients would no longer be able to see the physician of their choice on a fee-for-service basis. The number of people in Nevada who are on Medicaid is significant: 97,852 people were Medicaid clients at the beginning of this year.

Is this program designed to save the state money? No, according to Chris Thompson, administrator for the state Division of Health Care Financing and Policy. Thompson told an interim legislative subcommittee that switching Medicaid patients to HMOs would result in only a 1 to 3 percent savings in health-care costs. "There won't be any 15 percent savings like in private industry," Thompson acknowledged. Thompson asserted that this program would give Medicaid patients better access to health care.

But UMC Chief Executive Officer Bill Hale says the state's plan could hurt the hospital financially, noting that the state is taking away programs for which the hospital used to be reimbursed. "UMC could lose a major portion of its patient base, and we'll have to take care of only the really sick people," he said. Because UMC is owned by the county, taking away part of a lucrative patient base will hurt taxpayers in the end.

Considering that the program could end up damaging an important resource for Clark County, Miller should shelve this plan for the time being. And since the program is scheduled to begin just a few months before the Legislature reconvenes in January, it would make more sense to postpone this until the 1999 Legislature has a chance to see whether they agree with this abrupt change in policy by the Miller administration.