AUGUSTA — As the new medical director of MaineCare, Dr. Dora Anne Mills hopes to focus on preventive care.

MaineCare provides health insurance for 340,000 low-income and disabled people, about 26 percent of the state’s population. Mills will oversee and monitor the quality of health care delivery, with the goal of improving the health of those on MaineCare, she said.

She said MaineCare recipients report poor health at three times the rate of other Mainers: One in three pregnant women on MaineCare is addicted to tobacco. Only one in 25 of all other pregnant women uses tobacco. And children on MaineCare have lead poisoning more than twice the rate of other Maine children.

Preventive care could improve health and cut costs by ensuring that patients who are behind on immunizations get them and that people receive cancer screenings at the right time, Mills said. Also, children could be screened for diseases at ages when those diseases could best be treated.

Historically, MaineCare simply reimburses doctors, hospitals and other providers for services. Under the federal health care law, MaineCare is moving toward managed care. Provider networks will be established to help determine which should provide care, Mills said.

When care delivery and the health of members improve, it will make the system more efficient, Mills said. “Reducing costs is part of it.”

Mills served as the state’s top doctor for nearly 15 years, under Govs. Angus King and John Baldacci. In January, she’ll step away from her job as director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

It’s time for a change, she said.

“The opportunity came to my attention and it seemed like a great fit,” she said. “It really calls upon my prior experience practicing medicine, as well as (being) a public health director.”

Mills said stepping down from the Maine CDC had nothing to do with the new administration in Augusta. “I look forward to working with the (Gov.-elect Paul) LePage administration, making sure MaineCare is as efficient and effective as possible.”

Since she was appointed head of the Bureau of Health by former DHHS Commissioner Kevin Concannon, Maine’s overall ranking of citizen health has gone from 19th in the nation to eighth.

Teen smoking has been cut in half, from 40 percent in 1997 to 18 percent today. Adult smoking rates have dropped from 25 percent in 1996 to 17 percent in 2009. Maine was among the first states to outlaw smoking in restaurants in 1999. Since then, smoking has been banned in indoor public spaces, including bingo halls and bars, workplaces, public parks and beaches.

But the number of overweight and obese Mainers has climbed to the point that it has become a public health threat. Three ways people could improve their health is to live smoke-free, eat healthier food and become physically active, Mills said.

Mills, 50, is a Farmington native. She has degrees from Bowdoin College, the University of Vermont College of Medicine and the Harvard School of Public Health. She interned at the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles and worked as a pediatrician at Franklin Memorial Hospital in Farmington.

State epidemiologist Stephen Sears will serve as acting director of the Maine CDC. It will be up to the new commissioner of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services to find a permanent replacement.

The DHHS commissioner has not been announced by LePage, spokesman Dan Demeritt said.

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