The following article is from Arkansas Hospitals magazine, a custom publication of Vowell, Inc., which also produces Arkansas Money & Politics.
As the health care delivery system continues to evolve and focus more sharply on aspects of care coordination to improve patient outcomes, the Arkansas Hospital Association will continue to serve as an advocate for our hospitals as they serve patients, their families and our communities. Because the PASSE model places control with Arkansas providers who are directly involved with patient care and hold patients’ best interests at heart, we at the AHA are cautiously optimistic that this innovative payment/delivery model will maintain and improve the state’s infrastructure for truly managing the care – not just costs – of our most vulnerable patients, while continuing to ensure access to efficient, quality health care for all patients.
We applaud the Arkansas Department of Human Services for its decision to refrain from copying other states’ choices and simply outsource their oversight responsibilities to Medicaid Managed Care Companies. Those decisions too often have proven unsuccessful by creating unnecessary roadblocks to appropriate care and allowing Medicaid Managed Care companies to hold state budgets hostage as they profit from taxpayers’ dollars. Working together, Arkansas providers have the best opportunity to improve on Arkansas’s previous and current provider-led reforms that have created savings in the Medicaid program while providing excellent care to patients.