Few W.Va. Medicaid recipients sign unique pledge to improve health in return for expanded benefits

Only 8 percent of the eligible Medicaid recipients in West Virginia, one of the five majority-rural states, have signed up in the early stages of a first-in-the-nation program in which they get enhanced benefits if they sign a pledge to improve their health.

"The state hit the 11,000-enrollment mark last week," but 140,000 adults and children are eligible, reports Eric Eyre of The Charleston Gazette. Recipients "have five months to choose between basic and enhanced plans once they're notified that their traditional Medicaid benefits are expiring. Not everyone has had the opportunity to make the switch, and the program isn't expected to be fully up and running until March 2009."

The program requires recipients to see a doctor to sign up, "keep appointments and stay out of hospital emergency rooms," Eyre explains. "In exchange, they get expanded health services, such as weight-management, nutrition and smoking-cessation classes." (Read more)