Koochiching County commissioners last week appeared to have eased their concerns regarding the county’s managed care provider.
Representatives of UCare met with the county board Dec. 17 to address concerns expressed by commissioners and county staff. UCare will soon be the only managed care provider to service county residents who qualify for medical assistance.
“Today is about starting on a new foot, a better foot,” Stephanie Schwartz, UCare’s director of government relations, told commissioners.
Schwartz and two of her colleagues traveled to Borderland last week by invitation of commissioners at a Dec. 12 appeal hearing in the Twin Cities. Commissioners attended the hearing to encourage state officials to allow at least two care providers to service county clients on medical assistance
As of Jan. 1, UCare, which provides coverage to more than 300,000 members in Minnesota and portions of Wisconsin, will be the only provider available to county clients. That has frustrated commissioners and Terry Murray, director of the county’s Community Services Department. UCare will see gains from state contracts in 27 counties, 13 in which it is the sole provider.
A contract with UCare was terminated about two years ago by Koochiching County after Murray said the company could not effectively provide transportation to clients to medical facilities outside the county. The contract was renewed in July, however, and Murray has said he wouldn’t have selected UCare as the county’s only provider had he known other providers would not be available.
Carol Berg, public health and county manager in government relations at UCare, said UCare is aware it took “longer than we wanted” to contract with Arrowhead Transit, which provides transportation for the county’s medical assistance clients who need it.
“We have been in conversation with Arrowhead Transit for about a year and a half,” she said. “I think there was some miscommunication or misinformation about the process they would use to bill UCare for rides...Finally, I think it was understood what the relationship would be and they contracted with us last summer.”
Rides, Berg said, must be scheduled two days prior to medical appointments, with exceptions made for acute care.
“We want to hear from (clients) on what is the easiest process to ensure rides exceeding 30 miles for primary care or 60 miles for specialty care,” she said.
In addition to transportation concerns, Commissioner Wade Pavleck said during the Dec. 12 hearing that commissioners said they felt the county was receiving unequal treatment by having only one provider.
“The decision (to have only one provider) was made without input from the counties,” he told The Journal. “Prior to this, we had three.”
Commissioner said the board felt “discriminated against” because of Koochiching’s remote location.
“Having one provider here should be OK, but why don’t other areas have just one, too?,” Pavleck said.
“It was nothing against UCare,” Commissioner Brian McBride said of the decision to only have one provider in the county. “We question (DHS) more than you.”
Pavleck said commissioners were also concerned about prior complaints made by local providers about UCare.
Berg said as soon as the company heard from DHS that it would be the sole health plan in several counties, include Koochiching, “We actively called all the providers...to be sure things were going well and if there were any concerns we should be addressing.”
She said there were no concerns from Koochiching providers.
“Of all the providers I have contacted, we’ve had very positive feedback,” said Laurie Carlson, provider services field representative with UCare.
Murray said there were letters with concerns he was aware of from providers and said he would get those letters to UCare representatives.
Berg continued UCare focuses on partnerships it has with counties, providers and clients.
“We rely on local providers to have a good relationship with us,” she said, adding UCare’s voluntary disenrollment rate is less than 5 percent.
“Once people have been on UCare, they’ve stayed with us,” she said.
Schwartz said communication is key as new relationships are built.
“We want to have the kind of communications you would like at the county board level,” she said.
Pavleck said he appreciated the group’s visit to the board.
“I was pleased with what I heard from them,” he told The Journal after the meeting. “I think UCare realizes they need to do a good job up here.”
He said the board still has asked DHS to have at least one additional provider, but is unsure if the request will be fulfilled.
“Whether we’ll get that or not, I don’t know know,” he said. “Hopefully things — however they go — will work out.”
