NC Medicaid overhaul schedule altered by budget impasse

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The schedule to shift most of North Carolina’s Medicaid population to managed care is adjusting because of the state budget stalemate.

The Department of Health and Human Services announced Tuesday that managed care coverage won’t begin in 27 counties on Nov. 1 as previously announced. Now it will go online statewide on Feb. 1, when enrollees in the other 73 counties also are to begin.

Medicaid is moving from a traditional fee-for-service model to one in which health care entities receive fixed monthly amounts for every patient seen.

The last steps to begin managed care were contained in the budget bill, which Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed. He also vetoed last week a stand-alone managed-care measure. Cooper wants expanding Medicaid coverage to more adults deliberated in budget negotiations with legislators.