State Health Watch Archives – December 1, 2007
December 1, 2007
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Integrating services can help high-risk Medicaid beneficiaries
A Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS) first-of-its-kind Medicaid demonstration project that tested integrating health services for beneficiaries with multiple chronic conditions has found that such efforts appear particularly promising in generating quality improvements and reducing hospital admissions. -
Fiscal Fitness: How States Cope - No easy answers, but regional payment demonstrations may start 'fundamental change'
Current health care payment systems create penalties and disincentives across all elements of health care, including preventing illness, diagnosing, treating conditions, and follow-up care. -
Parties, president try to hammer out SCHIP compromise
As this issue of State Health Watch was finalized, some members of Congress were working behind the scenes to hammer out a compromise that could gain enough Republican votes to overcome a presidential veto. And President Bush signaled a willingness to accept some program expansion. -
WMIP integrates services for aged, blind, and disabled
The pilot Medicaid Value Program that drew the most attention from the Center for Health Care Strategies and Mathematica was the Washington Medicaid Integration Partnership (WMIP), which brings together primary care, mental health, substance abuse, and long-term care services for categorically needy aged, blind, and disabled (ABD) Medicaid beneficiaries in Snohomish County, north of Seattle. -
Medicaid, SCHIP expansion cover uninsured
States and communities wanting to quickly expand health care coverage to the uninsured can profit from experiences in Massachusetts and California, according to a study conducted for the Association for Community Affiliated Plans (ACAP) that found that expansion of Medicaid and SCHIP through Medicaid health plans is an effective way to cover the uninsured. -
States making strides in technology, info exchange
States are making progress in implementing health information technology (HIT) and health information exchange (HIE) initiatives that have the potential to reduce health care costs resulting from inefficiency, medical errors, inappropriate care, and incomplete information, according to a new report from the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General (OIG).