Alabama Medicaid officials have divided the state into five districts under a new care management plan.
The Legislature earlier this year approved a reorganization of Medicaid into districts around the state. Acting Medicaid Director State Health Officer Don Williamson says it was difficult to decide how to divide the counties, and added that some counties could be shifted before the map is finalized Oct. 1.
Williamson says there's nothing in the new plan to prevent patients from going to the same doctors they've always seen. He said one problem was that everybody wanted to be in the same district with a successful hospital, like UAB.