PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- A report prepared by the Lewin Group and released last week by America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) offers strong evidence that Medicaid managed care provides significant cost savings for states and increases access to quality health care for Medicaid recipients. The report included data from a plan managed by AmeriHealth Mercy, one of the largest Medicaid-only managed care organizations in the nation.
The report analyzed 14 studies on the value realized when states have implemented Medicaid managed care programs in place of the traditional fee- for-service (FFS) programs. The results of the analysis show that Medicaid managed care programs provide high quality, cost-effective care.
A highlight of the report includes results from Passport Health Plan, a plan that is managed by AmeriHealth Mercy. The results provide some evidence that Medicaid managed care savings could be significant for the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and SSI-related population. Medicaid managed care for Passport’s SSI population made up 25 to 34 percent of total enrollment and accounted for 53 to 61 percent of the savings achieved from 1999 to 2003. Other studies show that, since its inception, Passport has demonstrated more than $110 million in cost savings for the Commonwealth of Kentucky. In addition to Passport, Select Health of South Carolina, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of AmeriHealth Mercy, showed a combined savings of nearly $4 million over a two-year period.
The AHIP report also highlighted pharmacy management as another area where Medicaid programs showed considerable savings. AmeriHealth Mercy’s pharmacy management program, PerformRx, which serves over 890,000 Medicaid members in five states, demonstrates these savings by maintaining an average pharmacy cost trend of under 8 percent, versus the national trend of 15 percent in the Medicaid sector.
“The results from the AHIP report clearly support what we have always believed - that managed care works in Medicaid,” said Daniel J. Hilferty, AmeriHealth Mercy’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “Like the numerous success stories of the plans in the report, AmeriHealth Mercy and its family of companies have demonstrated their value for more than 20 years by giving Medicaid recipients access to the health care system, providing preventive care, offering case management and disease management programs, supporting community health initiatives and saving taxpayer money at the same time.”
With more than 20 years of experience exclusively serving the Medicaid population, AmeriHealth Mercy and its affiliates comprise the largest family of Medicaid managed care plans in the United States, touching the lives of more than one million members in seven states, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Kentucky, South Carolina, Virginia, California and Arizona. For more information, visit http://www.amerihealthmercy.com/ or http://www.performrx.com/.
Click here to view the entire report: http://www.ahip.org/redirect/LewinMedicaidManagedReportJuly2004.pdf.
AmeriHealth Mercy Health Plan
CONTACT: Rick Buck, +1-215-863-5102, for AmeriHealth Mercy
