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What’s up this week at Oklahoma Policy Institute? The Weekly Wonk shares our most recent publications and other resources to help you stay informed about Oklahoma. Numbers of the Day and Policy Notes are from our daily news briefing, In The Know. Click here to subscribe to In The Know.
This Week from OK Policy
- During this economic crisis we want people to work. Let’s give them the tools to do it: In the week ending May 30, more than 60,000 Oklahomans filed new unemployment claims, making Oklahoma one of three states with the largest increases in initial claims. As job growth from the last five years has essentially been lost, those Oklahomans who have been arrested or incarcerated will be hit especially hard by these changes. [Emma Morris / OK Policy]
- Current events demonstrate need for task force reviewing community policing standards (Capitol Update): Rep. Monroe Nichols, D-Tulsa, has announced he will introduce three measures next session dealing with police use of deadly force. As reform proposals go, these seem to be about as moderate as you could imagine. But they will no doubt face opposition. [Steve Lewis / Capitol Update]
- Policy Matters: Accurate census count vital to business, industry: As Oklahoma has moved forward with reopening efforts, the Census Bureau has relaunched efforts to ensure that Oklahoma and all other states get the most complete count possible. The census timeline now expects to be wrapped up by late fall – provided there are no other significant public health setbacks. [Ahniwake Rose / Journal Record]
- OK Policy Board of Directors elects new board officers: The OK Policy Board of Directors elected new board officers during its June 12 board meeting. Incoming officers are: Dr. Joseph Siano of Norman, Chair; Erika Lucas of Oklahoma City, Vice Chair; Jeff Berrong of Weatherford, Secretary; Chuck Garrett of Tulsa, Treasurer; and Don Millican of Tulsa, Immediate Past Chair. The Board also welcomed new member Caroline Guerra Wolf of Tulsa. [OK Policy]
Upcoming Opportunities
SoonerCare 2.0 federal comment period open through Saturday: The federal agency that oversees Medicaid is now accepting public comments through June 27 about the Governor’s health care proposal that he has been calling SoonerCare 2.0. Comments can be submitted through the CoverOK.org website. [CoverOK.org] OK Policy and Together Oklahoma are members of the CoverOK coalition, which advocates to protect and expand Medicaid in the state.
Weekly What’s That
Managed Care
Managed Care is a health care delivery system organized to manage cost, utilization, and quality. Unlike a traditional fee-for-service system, in which a provider is paid directly by an insurer for every service delivered, under managed care, an organization or provider is responsible for providing a specified set of services for each insured member in return for a set monthly payment, known as the capitation rate.
A managed care organization is an entity that receives a capitated payment and coordinates a patient’s care through a defined network of physicians and hospitals. An HMO, or Health Maintenance Organization, is a variety of managed care organization that typically requires patient to seek care from doctors and other providers who work for or contract with the HMO. In exchange for being limited in their choice of providers, patients enrolled in an HMO typically have lower out-of-pocket costs than in a fee-for-service plan.
Oklahoma’s Medicaid program, known as SoonerCare, operates a limited form of managed care. Under the SoonerCare Choice program, most children and working-age adults select or are assigned to a Primary Care Provider/Care Manager (PCP/CM), who receives a monthly capitated payment for coordinating the care of each of their patients. Oklahoma ran a fully capitated managed care HMO program in urban areas from 1996 to 2004.
Look up more key terms to understand Oklahoma politics and government here.
Quote of the Week
“We are not here in sorrow. We are here to act — to create meaningful and sustainable progress, and to demonstrate to the world the power of Black folks working together.”
-Actor, film maker and author Hill Harper, honorary co-chair of the $10 million campaign to restore Tulsa’s Greenwood District
Opinion Column of the Week
In 1921, a white mob burned ‘Black Wall Street’ down. We still feel that legacy today.
Even in the economic sphere, white supremacy in America has a deep and extensive history and legacy. While the color of money may not matter, the color of the moneymaker does. Black economic success, particularly when juxtaposed against white economic struggles, has historically been a catalyst for violence…
Yet the pain of Tulsa’s historical trauma lingers. So do enduring inequalities: disparities in education, healthcare, criminal justice, employment and even lifespan remain a fact of life for black Tulsans. A raft of emotions – anger, pain, fear, shame, and post-traumatic stress disorder, among them – punctuate race relations in Oklahoma and color efforts at reconciliation.
Numbers of the Day
- $1.267 billion – Expected increase in Medicaid, CHIP, and Marketplace Tax Credits in nonexpansion states like Oklahoma during 2020 (assuming no pandemic) if Oklahoma accepted Medicaid expansion
- 26,000 – The number of children with incarcerated parents in Oklahoma on any given day as of 2018
- 218,770 – The estimated number of Oklahoma children who were food insecure in 2016
- -30% – Projected change in the number of uninsured Oklahomans if the state accepted Medicaid expansion
- >100,000 – Advance estimate for number of people expected to be in downtown Tulsa on June 18-20 in connection with President Trump’s rally
See previous Numbers of the Day and sources here.
What We’re Reading
- Stolen breaths [The New England Journal of Medicine]
- Black workers, already lagging, face big economic risks [New York Times]
- Another $15 billion for food stamps, but poor households find groceries out of reach [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]
- Racism is a public health crisis, say cities and counties [Pew Trusts]
- Celebrate Juneteenth by continuing to fight for racial justice [Policy Matters Ohio]
