Medicaid health plans have traditionally covered such medical services as physician office visits, but now plans are starting to offer coverage for such previously uncovered services as education and housing, according to a Kaiser Health News report.
Philadelphia-based insurer AmeriHealth Caritas, and WellCare, which covers millions of Medicaid beneficiaries in Missouri, Nebraska, Georgia, Kentucky, Hawaii and Illinois, offer to pay for beneficiaries to take GED exams.
Jill Rosenthal, senior program director for the National Academy for State Health Policy, told KHN it's all part of states' efforts to spur health plans to improve people's health and reduce medical costs.
Many states are reportedly allowing health plans to share in savings they can demonstrate, thus incentivizing insurers to focus on factors that can increase health costs, such as poor housing.
"Health plans now have incentives for them to find the root causes of problems that will reduce costs that will benefit the plan, its beneficiaries and the states," Ms. Rosenthal told KHN.
Access KHN's full report here.