Sarasota is Part of Medicaid Experiment

Thousands of caregivers in Sarasota and Charlotte counties are receiving letters this month from the state, telling them they have 30 days to enroll their loved ones in Florida’s new Medicaid Long-term Care program.

The two counties are part of a sweeping experiment in managed long-term care that begins here on Sept. 1, affecting 5,596 Medicaid recipients in a seven-county area.

The goal: To cut Medicaid costs by gradually diverting more frail Floridians from nursing homes or assisted-living facilities and into home care.

To achieve this, private contractors will take over the state’s work of supervising cases and paying providers.

For the first year, contractors’ bonuses are linked to a modest 2 percent reduction in their share of the nursing home population, who receive 24-hour highly skilled care. The expectation is that these companies can move more Medicaid patients over time to less costly assisted-living facilities — or even back to their own homes, the cheapest option.

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