Ads are flooding screens and mailboxes in Iowa calling the state’s move to privately-managed Medicaid a failure and a health care crisis. Some feature
Iowa’s Medicaid director said Tuesday he doesn’t know what is driving a recent increase in what the state is paying per Medicaid member.
Kim Spading, a member of the council that oversees the Iowa Department of Human Services, asked during a budget presentation why the per-member cost shot up in the past two years.
“This is the opposite of what we would’ve hoped for,” Spading said.
Several days after the new fiscal year started July 1, Iowa has yet to finalize contracts with the companies that run its privatized Medicaid program.
This also happened last year. Department of Human Services Director Jerry Foxhoven told lawmakers in January negotiations would be completed in time for their budget process.
But lawmakers approved budgets more than two months ago without knowing how much the Medicaid program would cost.
Iowa’s Medicaid director Wednesday told the Council on Human Services the state’s privatized Medicaid program is saving money for taxpayers, but his explanation left questions unanswered.
Medicaid Director Mike Randol said the state is projected to save $140.9 million in the fiscal year that ends June 30, compared to what the state would have spent before its health care program for low income and disabled people was turned over to for-profit companies.
“I think it’s important to understand that regardless of the methodology, there are savings,” Randol said.
