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 August 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 twenty four counties in southwest Kansas. On that date, most Medicaid beneficiaries in Barber, Clark, Comanche, Edwards, Finney, Ford, Grant, Gray, Greeley, Hamilton, Haskell, Hodgeman, Kearney, Kiowa, Lane, Meade, Morton, Pratt, Scott, Seward, Stafford, Stanton, Stevens, and Wichita counties will join managed care.

A most important ingredient in the success of managed care is that 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 in order to form a continuity of care and promote prevention.

People in southwest Kansas going into Medicaid managed care programs will have the opportunity to make a choice of health care provider during June and July. Enrollment packets for the managed care programs will be mailed to Medicaid beneficiaries in these twenty four counties in June.

Information meetings to explain managed care and offer people a chance to choose a health care provider will be scheduled in southwest Kansas between June 21 and July 21. 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. It will be available in all 24 southwest Kansas counties. 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 (HMOs) under contract with the state. Through the HMO Horizon Health Plan, PrimeCare Kansas will be available in five counties, Barber, Ford, Morton, Pratt and Seward. Beneficiaries who choose PrimeCare Kansas in these counties also choose a primary care provider within the HMO for their health care needs. 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 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 mailed to eligible Medicaid beneficiaries in the southwest Kansas counties involved. During enrollment, people moving to a managed care program will be asked to make a choice of health care provider.

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