South Carolina Might Revise Plan To Increase Medicaid Copayments

South Carolina officials are rewriting a plan to reform the state's Medicaid program and could change a provision that raises beneficiaries' copayments for services, the Charleston Post and Courier reports. Under the reform plan, which was made public in June and must be approved by CMS, copays would be $50 for a nonemergency visit to the emergency department and $5 for a visit to the doctor that now costs $2. The copays for prescription drugs would increase from $3 currently to $5 for generics and $10 for brand-name drugs. The plan also calls for allowing state Medicaid beneficiaries to establish personal health accounts with the option to "self-direct" their medical care or purchase coverage from private health plans, which would be able to establish their own copays. Medical home networks could charge beneficiaries copays as well, the Post and Courier reports. Advocates argue that beneficiaries might choose not to go to the doctor or take their medications because of the higher copays, while proponents of the plan say that copays could save money by deterring unnecessary care. According to state Medicaid Director Robert Kerr, the state might reduce or waive the proposed copays for the poorest Medicaid beneficiaries when it revises its reform proposal (Maze, Charleston Post and Courier, 9/9).