Utah's Medicaid recipients, for reasons ranging from a lack of education to a lack of transportation, make too many trips to emergency rooms for symptoms and conditions that can be treated more effectively, and more economically, by a family physician. Since 2001, according to Utah Department of Health data, nearly one-fourth of the 130,000 emergency room visits by the state's Medicaid patients were not necessary.

It's a problem that ties up emergency room personnel, eats up Medicaid funding and results in patients receiving sporadic care from doctors unfamiliar with their medical histories. It's a problem that, for the sake of state taxpayers and the recipients themselves, needs to be addressed.

Unnecessary emergency room visits have been on the radar screen of the state Bureau of Managed Health Care for years. As part of its overall program to manage Medicaid care and reduce costs, state workers have targeted recipients who make three or more trips to the E.R. in a calendar year, and placed them in a "restricted" program that closely regulates their health-care decisions.

But three wasted trips are too many to trigger an intervention, and years could go by without recipients learning about the advantages of comprehensive care provided by a personal physician. Now, armed with a $503,000 federal grant, state officials are taking steps to assure that Medicaid patients receive cost-effective care in the appropriate place a doctor's office.

A single unnecessary emergency room visit will now prompt a call from new employees to be hired under the expanded program. State workers will help Medicaid patients find a family doctor, either a private physician or doctors at a community health center. And if they already have a primary care physician, the state will determine why the recipient used an emergency room for a non-emergency, and take steps to assure that it doesn't happen again.

It's a worthwhile endeavor. Hopefully, the state is able to document the savings, and convince the state Legislature to continue the program after the grant money is spent.