Issue Briefs | Nov 24, 2021

Conceptualizing Performance Measurement for Social Care Interventions: An Issue Brief for State Medicaid Agencies

Erika M. Brown, Caroline Fichtenberg, Taressa Fraze, Susannah Bernheim, Laura M. Gottlieb

Growing recognition that socioeconomic adversity impacts health outcomes has led the healthcare sector to support initiatives that address social determinants of health (SDOH). There is an opportunity to leverage performance measures to further incentivize these interventions and track adoption. Several social care use cases are relevant to Medicaid agencies: monitoring MCOs’ compliance with specific state or federal initiatives/requirements; advancing practice adoption by applying financial incentives, withholds, or public “scorecard” reporting; and informing future program development. This issue brief explores opportunities for state Medicaid agencies to implement performance measures with contracted entities that could strengthen their growing interest in social care and highlights several barriers to those applications.


Expert Perspectives

CMS Offers New Details on Account Transfer 2.0

The Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services (CMCS) explained the transition to “Account Transfer 2.0” (AT 2.0) in a CMCS Informational Bulletin (CIB) released on October 10, 2024. The CIB indicates significant federal investment in improving the process of transferring consumer application information between state Medicaid and CHIP agencies and the Marketplace in the states using the federal platform. This expert perspective reviews the CIB and highlights opportunities for states to improve account transfer data under the CIB.

CMS Solicits Comments on Medicaid/CHIP Reporting Templates for Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Parity

On September 9, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released a new collection of federal Medicaid and CHIP reporting templates designed to assist states in monitoring Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act (MHPAEA) compliance in Medicaid and CHIP. Informal public comment is requested by December 2, 2024. This expert perspective reviews the reporting templates to highlight considerations for states and support the formulation of comment submissions.