ACCESSABILITY
2023
2022
2021
2020
Hello, I must be Going
By Maria Dibble
STIC held our 40th anniversary event in June, celebrating four decades of service to the community. At the event, I announced my retirement from STIC at the end of this year, and introduced our current Assistant Director, Jennifer Watson, as my replacement. Jen is deeply dedicated to STIC’s mission and philosophy and will be a strong and effective leader for the organization moving forward.
I have been at the helm for 40 years, and it is with mixed feelings that I’m stepping down. The decision was a very difficult one to make, especially since I am one of the organization’s co-founders, and I’ve invested more than two thirds of my life in STIC’s development and growth, and in equality and independence for people with disabilities. I cannot begin to describe how much I have learned from the people we serve, as well as from my colleagues across the state.
Unmanaged Managed Care
Now we have it straight from the horse’s mouth: “Capitated payment models, such as the model used in Medicaid managed care, can create an incentive for insurance companies to deny the authorization of services to increase profits.” At last, the feds are repeating what we’ve been saying for well over a decade: “Three factors raise concerns that some people enrolled in Medicaid managed care may not be receiving all medically necessary health care services intended to be covered: (1) the high number and rates of denied prior authorization requests by some MCOs [Managed Care Organizations], (2) the limited oversight of prior authorization denials in most States, and (3) the limited access to external medical reviews.”