House committee backs feasibility study for locally run Medicaid 'accountable community' pilot

The House Standing Committee on Health Services voted unanimously to approve Senate Concurrent Resolution 9, a nonbinding resolution asking for a feasibility study into a locally owned, not-for-profit “accountable community health care organization” as an alternative delivery model for the Medicaid program.

Senator Steve Meredith (senator, chair of the Senate Standing Committee on Health Services), who introduced the resolution, told the committee he considers the state and national trajectory of health-care spending unsustainable and urged a new model that shifts risk and decision-making to local providers and communities. “We do have to do something different,” Meredith said, arguing that managed care organizations’ administrative costs and profit incentives reduce money available for care.

Meredith cited…