Since the launch of Medicaid privatization, Greene County Medical Center officials say it hasn’t been a smooth transition.

The topic was discussed at last month’s Board of Trustees meeting. Chief Executive Officer Carl Behne said that it has been a “constant frustration”. The trend he has been seeing is that the three Managed Care Organizations are denying claims and when that happens, the medical center ends up having to pay the bill.

Behne then said that in terms of easiest to hardest to work with, AmeriHealth Caritas was the easiest, next was United Healthcare and AmeriGroup was the hardest company to work with. MCO’s will also evaluate long term care residents and any potential residents to determine if that individual needs long term care.

Chief Nurse Executive Katie Heldt told the Board that BlueCross is making it more difficult for patients to obtain medication and care, while insurance companies are mandating certain kinds of medical equipment for only specific brands.

Iowa launched Medicaid privatization on April 1st.