D-Day for Medicaid changes in Iowa

Starting Friday, Iowa will have a new system of private business management of the state's Medicaid program.  The new system has a lot of question marks as it begins--issues that will need time to get sorted out.

For many Northeast Iowa residents, the biggest question they face is whether their Medicaid will pay for visits to Mayo Clinic in Rochester.  A recent Des Moines Register article (http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/health/2016/03/24/mayo-rebuffs-iowa-medicaid-managed-care-contracts/82230958/) pointed out that Mayo Clinic has NOT signed contracts with any of the three managed care organizations supervising Medicaid in Iowa starting Friday.

However, Mayo Clinic Health Systems spokesperson Susan Barber Lindquist e-mailed decorahnews.com that "Mayo Clinic will work with Medicaid-eligible patients in Iowa and their managed care organizations to make this insurance coverage transition as smooth as possible. If specialized care is not available elsewhere in Iowa, Mayo Clinic will work with patients' MCOs to try to get prior authorization to continue care at Mayo Clinic. This approach is consistent with other government-funded insurance programs in Iowa. Programs such as the Iowa state employee insurance program only cover care received outside of Iowa when the care needed is not available in Iowa."

But Lindquist also agrees that Mayo Clinic in Rochester and Mayo Clinic Health System sites in Minnesota and Wisconsin do NOT have a contract with any of the Iowa managed care organizations for Medicaid.

Winneshiek Medical Center in Decorah, which is managed by Mayo Clinic Health Systems, HAS signed contracts with two of the three MCOs.

There has also been a suggestion that Iowa Medicaid patients could be allowed to use Mayo Clinic specialists in Rochester on a case-by-case basis, but Lindquist's statement implies that this will be the case only, as she says, "when the care needed is not available in Iowa."