The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services is strengthening its contracts by seeking improved outcomes from the organizations that manage behavioral health care services supported with Medicaid and state mental health funds
Published: Tuesday, July 11th, 2017 @ 12:56 pm
By: Stan Deatherage
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A Senate panel passed legislation Thursday to accelerate mental health Medicaid reform and free up nearly $1 billion in frozen assets to provide more behavioral health services
Published: Sunday, June 18th, 2017 @ 6:44 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services is seeking applicants to develop recommendations of Governor Pat McCrory's Task Force on Mental Health and Substance Use, including employing case management and other targeted strategies to help those with mental health and substance use is
Published: Tuesday, November 22nd, 2016 @ 8:46 pm
By: Christopher Maye
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Now that the NC Department of Health and Human Services has submitted detailed plans for the Medicaid reforms passed last year we are able to get a clearer picture how reform is to be implemented. Our analysis leaves us with more questions than answers
Published: Sunday, July 3rd, 2016 @ 5:26 am
By: Tom Campbell
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State health officials announced today that the state- and Medicaid-funded Local Management Entities/Managed Care Organizations providing mental health, intellectual and developmental disability and substance use services to North Carolina citizens will be consolidating into four service regions
Published: Saturday, March 19th, 2016 @ 11:48 am
By: Christopher Maye
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After more than three years of debate and several false starts the legislature passed and Governor McCrory signed into law a Medicaid Reform law in 2015.
Published: Thursday, January 14th, 2016 @ 12:17 am
By: Tom Campbell
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The U.S. Department of Justice should butt out of North Carolina's mental health problems, since it is partially responsible for getting us into the situation we now face.
Published: Sunday, January 10th, 2016 @ 11:31 am
By: Tom Campbell
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There's something for everyone to dislike in the Medicaid Reform bill passed this week.
Published: Saturday, October 10th, 2015 @ 11:43 pm
By: Tom Campbell
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After several major revisions, Medicaid reform that had delayed budget approvals during recent years passed the General Assembly on Tuesday. Gov. Pat McCrory on Wednesday signed the measure.
Published: Saturday, September 26th, 2015 @ 9:56 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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The Senate on Monday night gave preliminary approval to House Bill 372, the Medicaid Transformation Act, by a 38-10 vote after a dispute over rules and decorum and a testy debate over whether this legislation would make expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act more likely.
Published: Saturday, August 15th, 2015 @ 2:22 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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Director Courtney Cantrell, PhD, of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services' (DHHS) Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse Services, announced that four Local Management Entities/Managed Care Organizations (LME/MCO) were selected to pilot Critica
Published: Monday, July 6th, 2015 @ 10:06 pm
By: Chris Downey
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The prescription for improving North Carolina's Medicaid program has been a repetitive talking point for the past two years. The initial game plan back in April 2013 was for the state to contract with at least three private managed care organizations (MCOs) to take on full risk for managing...
Published: Wednesday, June 24th, 2015 @ 9:18 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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For years now, legislators, policy analysts, medical providers, and lobbyists for various interest groups have been arguing about North Carolina's Medicaid program. Whether you find this argument interesting, confusing, or boring, I have some news for you: it's far from over.
Published: Monday, June 22nd, 2015 @ 4:16 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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All kinds of deals are made during the legislative session. Whether a distillery can sell unlimited amounts or only one bottle to people taking tours; whether vehicle registration fees should increase 50 percent or 30 percent or at all; whether solar subsidies should be cut off now or extended...
Published: Friday, June 12th, 2015 @ 2:04 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Aldona Wos, MD, announced today that Robin Gary Cummings, MD, Deputy Secretary for Health Services and Medicaid Director, will step down from his position to accept the role of Chancellor of the University of North Carolina at...
Published: Friday, May 22nd, 2015 @ 11:45 am
By: Chris Downey
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Last Monday, the John Locke Foundation hosted a thoughtful health care forum where three expert panelists offered insight on the status of Kansas, Louisiana, and Florida's Medicaid reforms. Featured speakers included Kansas Lt. Governor Jeff Colyer, a pediatric plastic surgeon and leader of...
Published: Wednesday, April 22nd, 2015 @ 5:35 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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North Carolina lawmakers grappling with Medicaid reform should combine elements of competing proposals in the state House and Senate to give patients more choices while remaining accountable to taxpayers, a panel of experts at an April 13 briefing for policy makers and industry officials said.
Published: Tuesday, April 21st, 2015 @ 3:07 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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N.C. DHHS' Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities and Substance Abuse Services (DMH/DD/SAS) has awarded funding to four projects to enhance mental health and substance abuse crisis services. Projects will receive $998,458 each year for the 2014-15 fiscal year and 2015-16 fiscal year.
Published: Tuesday, February 10th, 2015 @ 8:12 pm
By: Chris Downey
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The 2015 legislative session has commenced, which means that the House and Senate will be hashing out their differences about how best to reform our state's Medicaid program. The Senate favors a privatization approach, where multiple managed care companies (MCOs) compete for state contracts to...
Published: Sunday, January 25th, 2015 @ 6:31 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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The thoroughgoing reforms in Medicaid outlined 18 months ago by Gov. Pat McCrory are no closer to fruition now than they were when the governor introduced his Partnership for a Healthy North Carolina in April 2013
Published: Monday, December 15th, 2014 @ 11:28 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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Will North Carolina ever reform Medicaid? After more than two years, we aren't much closer to reform solutions today than we were a year ago.
Published: Monday, December 8th, 2014 @ 2:19 pm
By: Tom Campbell
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Ongoing Medicaid reform initiatives seeking to rein in unnecessary spending and better coordinate patient care may improve North Carolina's medical assistance program to a degree, and the special interests involved ostensibly have good intentions.
Published: Sunday, August 17th, 2014 @ 8:50 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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Today's Senate calendar includes a measure revamping Medicaid from the current fee-for-service model to one paying providers a set per-member-per month fee, moving Medicaid from the Department of Health and Human Services to a new department, and allowing hospital- and physician-led accountable care
Published: Wednesday, July 23rd, 2014 @ 12:53 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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The Senate on Wednesday rolled out an ambitious Medicaid reform planwith an aggressive timetable that health care provider organizations panned and other Medicaid experts applauded.
Published: Saturday, July 19th, 2014 @ 9:24 pm
By: John Locke Foundation
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Art Pope, director of the Office of State Budget and Management (OSBM), and Dr. Aldona Wos, secretary of the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), released the following statement
Published: Tuesday, June 3rd, 2014 @ 6:21 pm
By: Stan Deatherage
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Skeptics of the Medicaid reform plan announced in February by the McCrory administration are wary of using a relatively untested framework of what are known as accountable care organizations to administer and deliver Medicaid services.
Published: Wednesday, March 12th, 2014 @ 6:55 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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Legislative Democrats took a few jabs at state Auditor Beth Wood, a fellow Democrat, at a Tuesday meeting of the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Health and Human Services.
Published: Friday, November 22nd, 2013 @ 11:51 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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North Carolina could look northwest to Indiana and south to Florida for evidence of how a consumer-driven model would improve the state Medicaid program.
Published: Sunday, May 26th, 2013 @ 11:03 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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Medicaid's ineffective utilization of its unpredictable budget is a parasitic disease to taxpayers and beneficiaries. The state now faces a budget overrun of more than $248 million.
Published: Sunday, May 26th, 2013 @ 7:26 am
By: John Locke Foundation
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