The state officially handed over management of its Medicaid program April 1. But many agency leaders say they’re going into debt because a lot of their bills are rejected for trivial or unclear reasons, according to the report.
“We’re getting denials that we have no idea what they mean,” Tami Lichtenberg, executive director of Iowa River Hospice in Marshalltown, told The Des Moines Register.
Charles M. Palmer, director of Iowa Department of Human Services, which oversees the payments, told The Des Moines Register last week he is still confident the billing issues are being worked out as the Medicaid management companies and service providers get used to each others’ needs and practices. He also noted he has encouraged industry associations to let his administrators know if a small service agency is in a bind because Medicaid bills aren’t being paid.
Additionally, representatives of the three companies that manage Iowa’s Medicaid program — AmeriHealth Caritas Iowa, Amerigroup Iowa and UnitedHealthcare of the River Valley — have repeatedly said they are offering training and assistance for service providers to understand the new billing systems, according to the report.
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