Alabama wants to delay plans to move its Medicaid program to a managed-care model with regional care organizations. State officials say financial issues might make it tough to implement a program that was aimed at lowering healthcare costs and improving patient care.
Last year, the CMS approved an 1115 waiver that provided up to $748 million over five years to move Alabama away from traditional fee-for-service healthcare delivery. Even with the federal dollars, the state told the CMS it does not have money to help providers switch to RCOs.
Alabama officials are looking to delay the plans until Oct. 1, 2017.
Republican Gov. Robert Bentley, a licensed physician, last year said he was committed to moving forward with the switch to managed care. He admitted then there were a few unknowns, including state funding and whether the Donald Trump administration will give states block grants allowing more flexibility to write the rules for their
programs.