Having a choice of health care providers has always been important to Americans. When it comes to our health, we want to go to the doctor or clinic we feel most comfortable with.

On July 1, managed care programs for most persons who receive medical assistance under Medicaid through the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services (SRS) will begin operating in northwest Kansas. On that date, most Medicaid beneficiaries in Barton, Cheyenne, Decatur, Gove, Graham, Logan, Norton, Osborne, Pawnee, Phillips, Rawlins, Rooks, Rush, Russell, Sheridan, Sherman, Smith, Thomas, Trego, and Wallace counties will join Medicaid managed care.

A most important ingredient in the success of managed care is that the people in the program make their own choice of a health care provider. A major intent of managed care is helping to build good relationships between patients and their health care provider. This builds a continuity of care and promotes prevention.

People in northwest Kansas going into Medicaid managed care programs will have the opportunity to make a choice of health care provider during May and June. Enrollment packets for the managed care programs will be mailed to Medicaid beneficiaries in mid-May.

Information meetings to explain managed care and offer people a chance to choose a health care provider will be scheduled in northwest Kansas between May 19 and June 13. Times and places of these meetings will be announced later.

One of the managed care programs, HealthConnect, is a primary care case management program under which doctors and other primary care providers sign up to take a certain number of Medicaid beneficiaries as patients. Medicaid beneficiaries who choose to join HealthConnect pick from the primary care providers in the program and go to him or her for all their health needs. The provider refers them to specialists when needed.

The other managed care program is PrimeCare Kansas, which uses health maintenance organizations under contract with the state. Beneficiaries who choose PrimeCare Kansas also choose a primary care provider within the HMO. The primary care provider will refer patients to specialists when necessary.

Most Medicaid beneficiaries have a choice between enrolling in HealthConnect or PrimeCare Kansas, including people in the Temporary Assistance for Families program (the former Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program) and people in the Poverty Level Women and Children (PLE) program. People in the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program and the General Assistance (GA) program need to enroll in HealthConnect.

SRS Secretary Rochelle Chronister said the goals of managed care are to improve the quality of medical services being provided people who receive health care through Medicaid. Managed care is also expected to increase access to medical care and contain cost increases, she said.

In the coming weeks, information on how to enroll in managed care will be coming to eligible Medicaid beneficiaries in the northwest Kansas counties involved. During enrollment, people moving to a managed care program will be asked to make a choice of the health care provider they would like to see.

Persons scheduled to enter a managed care program who do not choose a primary care provider will have one chosen for them.

Page Last Updated: May 29, 2001