MONTGOMERY – Lawmakers left the Statehouse last week having funded Medicaid its requested amount for 2017 but already concerned about looming budget years.The funding allows Medicaid to change how it delivers care to more than 1 million Alabamians in the hopes of lowering costs, officials said.“There will still be a shortage moving forward, and we’ll have to deal with it,” General Fund Committee chairman Rep. Steve Clouse, R-Ozark, said about Medicaid, the state’s biggest General Fund budget expense.Here’s how things stood when the Legislature’s special session ended last week.Regional care organizationsMedicaid’s planned transformation to a managed-care model — where private entities called regional care organizations have a financial stake in keeping patients healthier and costs lower — has been in the works for years. It was supposed to begin next month.Bentley last week said the regional care organizations likely will start in April …
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