Illinois' new managed care program for disabled patients

The Chicago Tribune ran an article about the issues with Illinois' new program of HMO-style care for people with serious disabilities. Many doctors and hospitals are refusing to join the new Medicaid program, which will require patients to break current relationships and find new doctors who will take their coverage. Almost 40,000 adults with disabilities and Medicaid coverage living in suburban Cook, DuPage, Kane, Will, Kankakee and Lake counties are being affected. Those in Chicago are curently excluded but may be included if the pilot program succeeds. The two private HMO- style plans available include Aetna Better Health and the IlliniCare Health Plan.

Prescription discount card saves residents money and makes townships cash - but many wonder "What's the catch?"

Five Illinois townships have provided their residents with a prescription discount card that can save an average of 45% and also provides participating governments with the opportunity to earn 50 cents for certain prescriptions after their residents have used the card on over 1700 qualifying prescriptions.

Township administrators and Coast2 Coast Rx card company officials encourage those with insurance to compare prescription prices between their insurance and the discount card. But discounts through the card change weekly, meaning cost-conscious consumers must be vigilant.Because the card is free to residents and pays governments, residents and township officials alike have expressed skepticism about how it works.

Pharmacies pay Financial Marketing Concepts and its partnered pharmacy benefit manager, WellDyne Rx of Colorado, a "dispensing fee," or a marketing or advertising fee for bringing customers into their stores. Pharmacies are interested in getting foot traffic as they hope to make money on purchases made in addition to the prescriptions.

You can learn more about this by reading this Chicago Tribune article.

NYT: Portraits from a job-starved city

The New York Times has an interesting feature they put together to showcase the lives of 24 people living in Rockford, IL - a city whose unemployment rate has reached 16%. Some of the 24 people interviewed had their thoughts recorded as a podcast.

This is an innovative presentation of information and serves as a nice example of storytelling that nonprofits and foundations should pay attention to.