Utah Consultant Reports on OK Medicaid

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - A consultant hired by Oklahoma to help answer the question of how to insure people without health coverage says an existing program could provide the bedrock for a broader project.

Utah-based Leavitt Partners gave the Oklahoma Health Care Authority Board its preliminary report Thursday. The firm says Insure Oklahoma could be reworked and expanded to help almost 200,000 Oklahomans afford health insurance. Insure Oklahoma currently uses Medicaid money to help buy insurance for about 30,000 people.

The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has advised Gov. Mary Fallin that Insure Oklahoma must be changed in order to keep its funding past this year.

Leavitt Partners was hired early this year by the Oklahoma Health Care Authority after Fallin rejected new federal money to expand the state's Medicaid system.