More than 135,000 high-cost Illinois patients who are eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid will be assigned to a managed care health plan by early next year.
The initiative is a partnership between Illinois and the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and is designed to cut costs.

Patients do have the opportunity to opt out of the project.

In Illinois, patients eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid make up about 9 percent of the population and 27 percent of the cost of the program.

- Bob Hamilton, KMOX News