The Oklahoma Health Care Authority (OHCA) will begin its public notification process to reduce SoonerCare (Oklahoma Medicaid) provider rates by 25 percent effective June 1, 2016, in anticipation of the state fiscal year 2017 appropriation. 

It takes OHCA 60 days to implement rate changes because of public notification requirements. It takes 90 days for changes to impact the budget due to claim lag. It is imperative the agency achieves savings during the 12-month period; otherwise, the cut will be larger to achieve the savings during a shorter period of time.

 A 25 percent rate cut will put SoonerCare provider rates at 64.9 percent of the Medicare rate. It is also possible that if the agency’s appropriation is reduced more, additional provider rate cuts will be required. These cuts will affect all provider types including hospitals, physicians, pharmacy, durable medical equipment suppliers and nursing facilities.

About OrionNet Systems

OrionNet is an Oklahoma small business founded in 2001. OrionNet has designed, developed and supported applications created both for the client-server and web environments, as well as developing, marketing and supporting a commercial application for the counseling centers industry.

Visit the OrionNet Systems’ website, www.iorion.com, or their social media pages, https://twitter.com/ThinkHealth & https://www.facebook.com/pages/OrionNet-Systems/139352156150090 for more information.

About the Oklahoma Health Care Authority

The Oklahoma Health Care Authority is the primary entity in the state of Oklahoma charged with controlling costs of state-purchased health care. https://www.okhca.org/PolicyBlog.aspx