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Medicaid Chiefs Tout Managed Care

The Agency for Health Care Administration is sending out the big guns to talk up the "exciting" switch to statewide managed care, starting with elderly and disabled enrollees who are in nursing homes or receiving home-care services.

AHCA Secretary Liz Dudek, in a video interview sponsored by Sachs Media Group, explains the reasons for the switch and why she thinks it will be good for Florida and for Medicaid patients.

Also, Medicaid chief Justin Senior penned a column for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel aimed at letting Medicaid long-term-care patients -- those in nursing homes, or receiving help in their homes -- know they must sign up for a managed-care plan by Oct. 17 or the state will do the enrollment instead. The change in coverage begins in Broward on Nov. 1.

Four Central Florida counties  --Orange, Brevard, Osceola and Seminole -- made the switch on Aug. 1, and on Sunday (Sept. 1),  12 more counties on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts will undergo the same move, including Palm Beach and Sarasota counties.

See the schedule and other information here.

Originally founded in December 2006 as an independent grassroots publication dedicated to coverage of health issues in Florida, Health News Florida was acquired by WUSF Public Media in September 2012.