Medicaid

The annual 2013 Medicaid Managed Care Enrollment Report created by the Division of Managed Care Plans and the Data and Systems Group in the Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services at CMS, with assistance from Mathematica Policy Research, was released this week. Data on Medicaid enrollment is collected from every state, territory, and the District of Columbia, and is broken down into categories by program, population, and state. The report provides tables with nationwide data and data by state.

The annual Medicaid Long Term Services and Supports expenditure report for FY 2013 is now available. The report includes Medicaid expenditures for all LTSS, including institutional and non-institutional settings, by service category and state. This year’s report shows that home and community-based services composed a majority of LTSS spending. Additionally, it explains the changes, summarizes the data, and describes national trends. There is also an infographic depicting the data from 2013.

The Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured released a report that provides an overview of Medicaid enrollment and spending during state Fiscal Years (FY) 2015 and 2016. The results were gathered from interviews with state Medicaid directors as part of the 15th annual survey of Medicaid directors. Enrollment and spending significantly increased in Fiscal Year 2015, which was the first full year that the Affordable Care Act expansions were implemented.

The Milbank Memorial Fund released a new study, the Role of State Medicaid Directors: A Leadership Imperative. This study was authored by Andy Allison, a former Kansas and Arkansas Medicaid Director. The study focuses on the current climate of Medicaid policy, organizations and leadership. There is a specific focus on how the administration is structured for Medicaid in the states and the adequacy of state investments in the role and compensation of these leaders.

The Center for Health Care Strategies released a brief, funded by the Commonwealth Fund, that examined member engagement approaches used by participating health plans in Promoting Integrated Direct Care for Eligibles (PRIDE). The brief highlights promising strategies for providing Medicare-Medicaid enrollees with complex medical, behavioral health, and social service needs. There is a specific emphasis on the approaches to building trusting relationships with members.

The white paper examines the impact that managed care organizations can have on cost and quality of care for older adults and people with disabilities. The National Council on Disability found that MCOs can lower the costs of services for these populations. However, MCOs must face the challenge of training staff on person-centered planning and competency for the quality of care to genuinely increase. This provides an analysis of the positives and negatives of MCOs and where to move from here.

The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation released an issue brief reviewing the national and state-level Medicaid Advantage enrollment trends as of March 2015. It was believed that the reductions in payments to Medicare Advantage plans would reduce enrollments, but it has actually increased by 5.6 million. One key finding showed that "Almost one in three (31%) of people on Medicare (16.8 million beneficiaries) were enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan in March 2015."

The UnitedHealth Center for Health Reform and Modernization released a new brief. Many Americans do not have health insurance coverage, and Medicaid enrollment can cover the gap of the uninsured, if successful practices are used. This brief highlights four approaches used in Kentucky and Arkansas to increase enrollment for low-income residents to cut their uninsured populations in half. The solutions in this brief can inform other states on efforts to decrease the number of uninsured people.

Through collaboration with the Universities of Minnesota, Colorado, and Massachusetts, this report focuses on the services and supports for individuals with I/DD in the U.S. territories. The first long-term data collection focuses on collecting, tracking, and analyzing services to provide information to improve and increase productivity, independence, integration, and inclusion of people with I/DD into their communities.

The second annual report to Congress examines the services utilized by Medicaid's behavioral health beneficiaries. The findings indicate that low-income children have high levels of unmet need in the mental health care arena. Additionally, the review of Medicaid's dental coverage found considerable variation between states, particularly for services provided to adults. The report findings illustrate the potential directions for change to improve care for beneficiaries.