Alpha Center Studies Incentive-based Purchasing in Medicaid Managed Care
Contact: LeAnne DeFrancesco or Carole Lee, 202-296-1818, Web site: http://www.ac.org
WASHINGTON, Aug. 24 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Managed care, if used properly and effectively, holds tremendous promise for improving access to and quality of care. However, states and managed care organizations (MCOs) are faced with a troubling problem: how to balance increasingly complex, often process-oriented contracts designed to protect access and quality of care with risk-based payment systems that reward underutilization.
In response to this challenge, the Center for Health Care Strategies' (CHCS) Medicaid Managed Care Program -- a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-sponsored initiative -- has funded an Alpha Center study on incentive-based purchasing in Medicaid managed care.
"Through creative use of targeted incentives, states are able to reward and reinforce the clinical performance of the best health plans, all to the benefit of vulnerable patients," said Kevin B. Piper, principal investigator on the project and vice president of the Alpha Center. The project team -- which includes co-investigator Jeff Harris, principal at the Health Policy Group, and Alpha Center associate Jeremy Alberga -- seeks to:
-- Assess current practices, identify lessons learned, and recognize the advantages, disadvantages and limitations of targeted financial and non-financial incentives to MCOs;
-- Analyze the primary policy, economic, and administrative implications of incentives on managed care models and operations; and
-- Conceptualize approaches to using incentives to improve the clinical and administrative performance of MCOs.
The resulting findings and recommendations will be incorporated into a national report for state Medicaid officials and MCO executives. The $98,000 study will be completed in November.
------ The Alpha Center (www.ac.org), one of the nation's leading health policy centers, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving access to affordable, quality health care. Founded in 1976 and based in Washington, D.C., the Alpha Center assists public and private sector leaders in meeting health care challenges by providing technical assistance, research, facilitation, information, and program management.
The Center for Health Care Strategies (www.chcs.org), an affiliate of Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School, is home to The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Medicaid Managed Care Program. Based in Princeton, N.J., CHCS sponsors studies, funds demonstration projects, and provides technical assistance to improve the delivery of managed health care to the 35 million beneficiaries of Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program.
-0- /U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/ 08/24 11:23
Copyright 1999, U.S. Newswire
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