Managed health care systems to gain ground
by Amritha Alladi - News Star (excerpt)

For Louisiana, 2012 will be the year of managed health care systems.

At the state level, the Department of Health and Hospitals will roll out Bayou Health, a shift from a fee-for-service health care system to a managed, coordinated care model that is expected to give about 1.1 million Medicaid patients more choice in their health plans and service providers, according to the state's health secretary. For its behavioral health care services, the state has turned to Magellan Health Care Services as the sole organization tasked with managing behavioral health care services for the approximately 150,000 patients who rely on them.

Also this year, local stakeholders say they will wait to hear news from the U.S. Supreme Court regarding the constitutionality of a provision in the Affordable Care Act that would require every individual to purchase health insurance. But until a decision on that is reached, they say they will sit tight before making any changes. Congress will also decide on whether to cut Medicare reimbursements to physicians by more than 20 percent.