State health officials are holding public hearings in Monroe and Huntersville on Thursday on the plan to overhaul North Carolina Medicaid.
After debating how to change the state’s most expensive health care program for a few years, lawmakers passed a compromise in September. They settled on a mixture of health care models that are gaining national prominence.
The plan is for Medicaid recipients to choose which of the models they’ll fall under. Under one option, groups of doctors and hospitals will take on additional responsibility for managing care and hitting budget targets. The federal government has been encouraging the growth of these groups, often called Accountable Care Organizations.
The other option is for insurance companies to take that responsibility. They’re often called managed care organizations, and they’re becoming increasingly common in state Medicaid programs.
North Carolina health officials want to hear the public’s take on the overall plan and the proposed regions for the organizations. (The idea is to make sure there’s competition.)
The hearing in Monroe is at the Union County Department of Social Services on Thursday afternoon at 2:00. The hearing in Huntersville is at Central Piedmont Community College’s Merancas Campus at 6:30 Thursday evening.
