Michael Moline
Florida’s Medicare managed care program will cost $732 million less that the Legislature provided during this fiscal year, a panel of state economists concluded Monday.
But the rate of savings in that program will slack off as the program matures, said Amy Baker, coordinator for the state Office of Economic and Demographic Research. She chaired Monday’s meeting of the Social Services Estimating Conference.
“People are more used to it — they know what they’re dealing with,” she said. “The state knows what they’re getting from all the providers.
“Going forward, you would expect it to move over time back to medical trends.”
Florida’s social services caseload has been declining. The same panel last week forecast a 160,000-person reduction, on top of a 500,000-person reduction during the last fiscal year.
“I think everybody’s kind of befuddled about that,” Baker said. Part of it is that people are earning too much to qualify because of the improving economy. “But that’s not all of it. It’s pervasive.”
Meanwhile, enrollment in Florida KidCare, Florida’s version of the federal program providing health care to children, has been growing faster than expected. It grew by 10 percent during the fiscal year just concluded — well ahead of the Legislature’s predicted 5.3 percent.
“The conversion to managed care is done, but there are tweeks and adjustments being made,” Baker said. For example, “dental used to be inside the rate, but they’re splitting out into a separate … rate.”
