Tagged: Medicaid

About 1.5 million North Carolinians rely on Medicaid for health care. It's a massive program that costs the state about $36 million a day. And it may be about to change dramatically. Governor Pat McCrory is pushing for an overhaul that some say would privatize the program. We'll examine what's working in the current model – what's not – and what the overhaul would mean for North Carolina, when Charlotte Talks.

Governor Pat McCrory outlined a plan to significantly change North Carolina's Medicaid program last week. A key person responsible for filling in the details is Carol Steckel. She's the director of the state's Medicaid program, and she spoke to WFAE's Michael Tomsic about the reasons for the overhaul and how it's designed to work.

North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory plans to make major changes to the state's Medicaid system. About 1.8 1.5 million North Carolinians who are low-income, young, elderly or disabled rely on Medicaid for health coverage.

McCrory said the current system is broken and inefficient.  He pointed to an audit that showed the state has been horrible at managing the cost of the program. He said the state hasn't been much better at managing the care people get, either.

  Mecklenburg County will have another chance to prove it’s ready to take over more than $200 million in Medicaid funds for mental health services.

The county spent the last two years and $3 million  preparing its agency MeckLINK to handle mental health, substance abuse, and disability services, as part of a statewide change to how Medicaid funds for those services are dispersed.