Northwest Iowa — (RI) — A key northwest Iowa legislator says there are so many variables, it’s difficult to determine how much the state may be saving under the privatized system for Medicaid.
Republican Randy Feenstra of Hull is chairman of the Iowa Senate’s tax-writing committee.
On April 1, 2016, private companies began managing care for the 560-thousand Iowans covered by Medicaid at that time. Governor Terry Branstad said the state would save about a quarter of a million dollars a year by ending state-run management of the program. Feenstra says it’s hard to compare what was in place two-and-a-half years ago with how the program’s operating today because of fluctuations in things like the number of Medicaid patients and the type of services and medications covered.
Feenstra says legislators are “the first to hear” from patients who are being denied critical care.
And Feenstra says small rural hospitals and clinics are complaining about late Medicaid payments. The new head of the state’s Medicaid program recently reported the state was saving nearly 141-million dollars because the program had been privatized, but has not provided legislators with specific details about how those savings were achieved.
