More Than 11,000 West Virginia Medicaid Beneficiaries Enroll In 'Enhanced' Benefits Plan, Sign Pledge To Adopt Healthier Lifestyles

Main Category: Medicare / Medicaid / SCHIP
Also Included In: Public Health
Article Date: 17 Jul 2008 - 12:00 PDT

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More than 11,000 West Virginia Medicaid beneficiaries have enrolled in the new "enhanced" benefits program, Mountain Health Choices, which requires residents to sign personal responsibility pledges stating that they will take steps to improve their health, the Charleston Gazette reports. By signing the pledge, beneficiaries agree to regularly visit their physician, take their medication and avoid seeking care at emergency departments. In exchange, they receive health services such as weight management and nutrition education, and smoking cessation classes.

Shannon Landrum, legislative liaison at the West Virginia Bureau for Medical Services, said the number is "extremely encouraging to us," adding, "We expect thousands more to sign up for the enhanced plan in the coming months." The 11,000 beneficiaries represent 8% of the 140,000 state residents eligible to enroll in the program.

However, Perry Bryant, executive director of West Virginians for Affordable Health Care, said the healthiest Medicaid beneficiaries are the most likely to enroll in the enhanced benefits plan, while the majority of beneficiaries are enrolled in the state's "basic" Medicaid plan, which limits prescription drugs and other services. He said state officials are "not releasing the numbers in the basic program," adding, "You need to be looking at the people who have chronic illnesses. That's where you need to spend your dollars."

Barbara Good, physicians advocate for the West Virginia Medical Association, said that enrollment in the enhanced benefit was slow to start, but more beneficiaries are hearing about it now. "Our physicians have seen the merits of educating their patients," she said, adding, "It's a whole new mindset" (Eyre, Charleston Gazette, 7/14).

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