Nearly half of the people who telephoned a special state-run call center in early December for information about Iowa’s Medicaid switch hung up — because the wait times were so long. Mikki Stier, the director of Iowa’s Medicaid program, says she’s hired more staff to handle the call volume…
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She says call center staff now have scripts to better answer questions from some of the 560-thousand Iowans who are on Medicaid and have to enroll with a private company that will start managing their health care. Democratic lawmakers say they’re still hearing from Medicaid patients who say they’re worried they’ll have to change doctors or care givers when the managed care switch takes effect. State officials say about 75 percent of the health care providers in Iowa have signed with at least one of the three companies that will run the managed care system for Medicaid. The federal government ordered a 90-day delay in implementing the switch to managed care. On March 1st, the Branstad Administration will impose a 10 percent reduction in Medicaid reimbursement rates for doctors and hospitals that haven’t signed a contract with one of the managed care companies.