After Pamela Morris graduated from
college, she began working as a caseworker for the state of Ohio and saw the challenges that Medicaid recipients
faced in finding service providers who
would accept them.
She wanted to help these Medicaid
patients, so in 1986
she moved to Dayton
to create the Dayton
Area Health Plan, a
consortium of health
care professionals in
the area.
While she had great
experience due to
her time as a caseworker and her expertise
working with Medicaid, she faced a difficult journey. All the other managed care
companies that had started had gone out of
business, but she vowed to not make the
same mistakes they had.
Morris met with government officials
in Washington, D.C., to get a federal
waiver that wouldn’t allow Medicaid
providers to charge a fee for service and
to ensure Medicaid recipients could
choose from at least two managed care
providers. After two years, the waiver
passed.
She next had to get an HMO license,
which was supposed to cost $50,000, but
during the process, the state notified her
it now cost $300,000. Undeterred, she
came up with the money and got the
license. She also overcame a class-action lawsuit that was filed to stop her
efforts.
Three years and three major obstacles
later, the state’s first managed care plan
was finally launched in 1989, now called
CareSource Management Group. The
company serves more than 525,000 consumers, and Morris continues to build
the business to ensure future success
and care for Medicaid consumers.
HOW TO REACH: CareSource Management Group, (937) 224-3300 or www.csmg-online.com