Managed care is a way to manage the cost, use, and quality of the health care you receive. Managed care organizations, sometimes referred to as HMOs, can be a good choice for your health care needs.

A MEDICAL HOME
Managed care plans encourage enrollees to select a primary care provider as a medical home for themselves and their families and to play an active role in their health care by asking questions and following treatment plans. Your primary provider refers you to needed specialists and services.

KEEPING YOU WELL
The best managed care plans focus on keeping you well or keeping a chronic condition under control. They encourage you to eat right, get lots of exercise, and use your prevention benefits to find an illness early. They do this by communicating with you.

Managed care plans remind members to schedule checkups and preventive services such as pap tests and mammograms, screenings for diabetes complications, and immunizations. (Plans pay for these services.) Managed care seems especially right for women because women use preventive measures at twice the rate men do.

GETTING CARE
When you are ill, your managed care plan coordinates your care with input from your primary provider, nurses, social workers, and pharmacy and behavioral health specialists. Team coordination helps assure that you get the right care, in the right setting and at the right time.Members may appeal a plan’s decision if it denies or stops treatment you feel you need.

Prevention, Access, Coordination. Managed care is right for you.