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The governor says the shift would save money and provide more flexible benefits. But federal officials have heard from hundreds of Iowa critics who say Branstad is courting chaos by rushing to make the switch before the managed-care companies are ready. One of the main complaints has been that Iowa Medicaid participants were supposed to choose a managed-care plan by Thursday, even though they had little information about which plans their doctors, hospitals and other health care providers would participate in. (Leys, 12/18)

Gov. Terry Branstad announced plans to transition Iowa’s $5 billion Medicaid system to four out-of-state, private care companies earlier this year. In August, the state awarded contracts to Amerigroup Iowa, AmeriHealth Caritas Iowa, UnitedHealthcare Plan of the River Valley and WellCare of Iowa. Since then, many providers and Medicaid recipients have called the move rushed, with the Iowa Hospital Association even asking a Polk County District Court judge to delay the implementation of the managed-care plan until a legal conflict is addressed. (Baker, 12/18)

It’s been a complicated handoff. The change was originally planned to take effect Jan. 1. With two weeks to go, the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which oversees state programs, deemed Iowa “not yet ready” in a letter to the state on Dec. 17. By mid-December, many of the state’s hospitals and other medical providers—such as clinics, nursing homes, and home health-care services—still hadn’t signed contracts with the Medicaid insurers. That made it impossible for patients to know whether they could keep their existing doctors. (Tozzi, 12/17)

Federal officials told the state on Thursday it doesn’t believe Iowa is ready to transition its $5 billion Medicaid program to managed care on Jan. 1 — delaying the move until March 1. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services “expects that we will ultimately be able to approve Iowa’s managed-care waivers. However, we do not believe that Iowa is ready to make that transition on Jan. 1,” according to a letter addressed to Iowa Medicaid Director Mikki Stier. (Keenan, 12/17)

Federal officials have told Iowa the state is not ready to transition management of its Medicaid system to private companies. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has told Iowa in a letter today it may transition to private management on March 1st instead of January 1st, 2016, as long as the state makes sufficient progress toward readiness by that time. (Boden and Leland, 12/17)