The Electronic Health Record Demonstration, funded by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), is designed to evaluate whether financial incentives can increase the adoption and use of electronic health records (EHRs) by primary care physician practices. This first evaluation report...

Confidentiality is a key element of mental health and substance abuse treatment. In the absence of assured confidentiality, many individuals with mental disorders or substance abuse problems may refuse or fail to seek treatment. As the payers of treatment, however, managed care organizations and...

The backlash against managed care has pressured plans to reexamine approaches to controlling utilization and managing members' health care needs, but how much has really changed? Interviews with health plans and others in 12 nationally representative markets suggest that the changes are significant.

This chartbook includes more than 25 graphics and tables developed by Mathematica to analyze the characteristics and service use of Medicaid beneficiaries with special health care needs, using State Medicaid Research Files data for four states. Offers recommendations for designing managed care...

As enrollment in Medicaid managed care grew through the 1990s, the number of health plans willing to participate in state Medicaid programs became a growing concern. Notes that between 1997 and 1999, 15% to 17% of participating plans exited Medicaid annually, a higher rate than in previous...

Population health management programs—programs targeted to a defined population that use a variety of individual, organizational, and societal interventions to improve health outcomes—are increasingly being looked on by large employers as a promising practice for improving health...

The evaluation of the Local Initiative Rewarding Results (LIRR) demonstration is unique among national research projects focused on pay-for-performance in its focus on the Medicaid environment. The five California Medicaid health plans that implemented incentives under the demonstration targeted...

For the low-income elderly and disabled, Medicaid can cover some or all of the out-of-pocket expenses that remain after Medicare coverage. However, Medicaid participation for these groups is low. Using recent experience in promoting SCHIP participation, this brief examines barriers to Medicaid...