State Health Watch Archives – September 1, 2009
September 1, 2009
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Focus intensifies on high-need, high-cost Medicaid clients
With states facing a bleak economic forecast, attention to high-cost populations within Medicaid is growing. -
Fiscal Fitness: How States Cope: New Mexico Medicaid has some difficult choices to make for FY 2010
A long list of proposed cost- containment possibilities for New Mexico's Medicaid program never happened, due to funding the state received from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. However, in FY 2010, "all possibilities are back on the table for consideration," according to Carolyn Ingram, New Mexico's Medicaid director. -
Colorado Medicaid has three different pilots for its high-cost patients
About 24% of Colorado's Medicaid clients are either elderly or in a disability category, and this group accounts for about 66% of total expenditures. -
Too many Medicaid clients 'churn' in and out of the program
Medicaid enrollees often face gaps in insurance coverage, even though they remain eligible for the program, causing them to "churn" in and out of the program. -
New Medicaid leadership program is taking shape
Helping Medicaid directors to pursue innovation, while delivering higher-quality, more cost-effective health care services: this is the goal of a new Medicaid leadership program launched by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. -
Washington Medicaid's care management makes important changes
Shirley Munkberg, acting office chief in the Office of Quality and Care Management of Washington's Health and Recovery Services Administration, acknowledges that "it takes care management programs a while to mature and show cost savings." However, when two of the state's recently implemented care management programs were evaluated, a statistically significant decrease in mortality was found. -
Mandating flu shots: Lessons from front lines
Infection preventionists and their employee health colleagues undertaking a mandated program to immunize health care workers against flu invariably will run into four groups of people: