The Medicaid Game: A Personal Experience in Playing and Winning

The author uses a lighthearted approach in describing the procedure one must go through to be paid, ultimately, as a Medicaid service provider. He calls it the Medicaid—or maze—game. Participants in the game include the players, of course, and also kibitzers, referees, cheerleaders, adversaries, and allies. The playing field is a maze. The player learns the rules during the game. The author details his own experience as a player in Georgia when the state division of mental health hired him to secure payment to community mental health centers for services they provided under Medicaid's clinic-service option. By the time he won his first game, he had been playing for ten months.