{"id":667,"date":"2012-02-24T11:36:02","date_gmt":"2012-02-24T15:36:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.khpi.org\/blog\/?p=667"},"modified":"2012-02-24T11:39:35","modified_gmt":"2012-02-24T15:39:35","slug":"kentucky-medicaid-still-a-mess-month-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.khpi.org\/blog\/kentucky-medicaid-still-a-mess-month-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Kentucky Medicaid Still a Mess: Month 4"},"content":{"rendered":"

Primum non noccre.<\/em><\/strong> \u00a0First do no harm.<\/p>\n

Attributed to Hippocrates, the above aphorism is often cited in discussions of medical ethics. \u00a0The fact is that it is impossible to practice medicine without causing some harm. \u00a0Nothing from taking a medical history to administering chemotherapy and everything in between is free of potential harm. \u00a0As in life, few things are simple and a ballance of risk and benefit is always made. \u00a0The aphorism should be rewritten as:<\/p>\n

Primum minimus noccre.<\/em><\/strong> \u00a0First do the least harm.<\/p>\n

I no longer see patients and have no first-hand experience with the new state-wide Medicaid Managed Care systems. \u00a0I can however still read, and it is clear that things are not going very well, at least if the testimony at Frankfort hearings is generalizable. \u00a0Some of the reports sound just plain awful. \u00a0I cannot conceive that a stable epileptic would have medicines dolled out two weeks at a time. \u00a0Is there a copay involved that would also double?<\/p>\n

Managed care companies are charged with weeding out the unnecessary or poor quality medical care that physicians and other providers are unable or unwilling to tackle themselves. \u00a0I acknowledge and even applaud those efforts. Active managed care however is very difficult to do and requires cooperation from both patients and providers\u2013 cooperation that has never been in abundance. \u00a0As a result, managed care companies have evolved to depend more on things like preauthorizations, copays, formularies, and restricted payments. \u00a0Cynics will call this rationing by inconvenience. \u00a0Modern insurers are certainly practicing medicine in the sense that they are determining treatments or withholding them. \u00a0(Sometime they practice better than free-range doctors.) \u00a0All this micromanagement might trim medical expenditures, but it also increases overhead costs to both the insurer and the providers. \u00a0Where is the balance point? \u00a0 If needed services are delayed, then the cost will be more than just in dollars. \u00a0I honestly do not know how much is really saved by managed care as it currently is practiced. \u00a0Perhaps not much at all. \u00a0It has never been shown to me that Passport (which provided good care) ever saved the state money.<\/p>\n

What to do now?<\/h2>\n

I do not believe things will be sorted out quickly. \u00a0Not only are the systems all new to the state and providers, but also to patients who do not know what to expect. \u00a0An attempt to apply the full bore of managed care protocols that might have worked elsewhere to a new population was probably doomed to failure here, at least I think so. \u00a0What the state needs to do now is to signal the three new Medicaid companies to back off a little and apply their controls in a more gradual manner. \u00a0This will require that some money be allowed to flow into the system. \u00a0Don’t waste time trying to adjudicate bills from last November or you will never catch up. \u00a0 The overbearing principal here is that sick people should be protected. \u00a0This will hurt the bottom lines of doctors, hospitals, pharmacies, insurance companies, and the state treasury. \u00a0This was never going to be easy or cheap. Real reforms are not going to me made by requiring long phone calls between doctor’s offices and drugstores to authorize prescriptions. \u00a0Effective reforms must be made in the entire medical marketplace, and not just in the market of the most vulnerable. \u00a0Bite the bullet and make a nationwide medical system that is a coherent whole, not one in which some benefit at the expense of others. \u00a0 Any Medicaid problem will then melt away. \u00a0This will take more political courage and true professionalism than we have been able to manage up to now. \u00a0I am not optimistic. \u00a0In the meantime, do less harm.<\/p>\n

Medicus quidem faciendum malum.<\/em><\/p>\n

Peter Hasselbacher
\nFeb 24, 2012<\/p>\n

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