South Carolina To Shift Medicaid Beneficiaries to Managed Care Plans

South Carolina will move more than 550,000 Medicaid beneficiaries to managed care plans starting Nov. 1, the Columbia State reports.

South Carolina officials say the shift will improve preventive care and provide beneficiaries with a primary care physician, which will reduce costs associated with care received in hospital emergency departments.

Beneficiaries who do not choose a managed care plan will be assigned one. The enrollment processes is expected to be finished by the end of 2008. Insurers who offer the plans will receive a payment for each Medicaid beneficiary they enroll.

BlueChoice HealthPlan, a subsidiary of BlueCross and BlueShield of South Carolina, will be the first insurer to enter the Medicaid market and is expected to start enrolling beneficiaries this fall (Werner, Columbia State, 8/15).