Privatizing Iowa's Medicaid program will result in fewer physician options for adolescents, according to The Des Moines Register.
Here are five takeaways:
1. Hawk-I, Iowa's children's health insurance program, currently includes 37,000 adolescents.
2. Of the 34,000 Hawk-I healthcare providers, only 11 percent signed contracts with companies running the privatized Medicaid plan.
3. The AmeriGroup managed care organization, for instance, will only work with about 15 percent of healthcare providers who offered services to Hawk-I adolescents.
4. Hawk-I patients may face challenges in keeping their healthcare providers or finding new providers.
5. Gov. Terry Branstad argues privatizing the Medicaid program will offer Medicaid patients more physicians.