UMass Memorial Health Care said it will continue to care for MassHealth patients but it won’t join in the accountable care organizations being formed as the state revamps Medicaid. Meanwhile, a California health care system is moving some of its Medicaid patients to clinics instead, and Utah formally submits a request to the federal government for a limited Medicaid expansion for some homeless people.


Boston Globe:
UMass Memorial Pulls Out Of State Medicaid Overhaul

Central Massachusetts’ largest health care provider has dropped out of a program to redesign the way the state pays for and manages health care for poorer residents, saying the financial risks are too great. The move makes UMass Memorial Health Care the state’s only large network of doctors and hospitals that will not participate in the restructuring of the Massachusetts Medicaid program, called MassHealth. (Dayal McCluskey, 8/17)


Sacramento Bee:
Sutter Shifting Medi-Cal Enrollees To Community Health Centers

In Sacramento and Placer counties, roughly 10,000 adult Medi-Cal enrollees with Anthem Blue Cross are learning this summer that Sutter’s primary-care doctors will no longer see them. Instead, those patients are being shifted to primary-care doctors at community health centers such as Sacramento’s WellSpace Health or Auburn’s Chapa-De Indian Health, said Dr. Ken Ashley, the medical director for primary care at Sutter Medical Group. He said the change in providers will allow the patients to access more services. (Anderson, 8/17)


The Associated Press:
Utah Submits Medicaid Plan To Help With Homeless, Treatment

Utah asked the Trump administration this week to approve a limited Medicaid plan to help the homeless and those in need of mental health and drug addiction treatment. The plan is part of a state strategy to curb violence and drug trafficking in a Salt Lake City neighborhood near an overcrowded homeless shelter, but it’s a very limited alternative to expanding Utah’s Medicaid plans as offered under President Barack Obama’s health care law. (8/18)


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