Protected: Maternal Health Roundtable
Materials from virtual Maternal Health Roundtable meetings hosted by SHVS in September 2022, February 2023, and March 2024.
Transformational Community Engagement: Working With Community to Advance Health Equity
On Tuesday, February 28, State Health and Value Strategies hosted a webinar that explored how states can implement community engagement strategies that amplify community voices, engage program enrollees, and translate engagement into more effective and equitable health initiatives. Community engagement is a critical component in advancing health equity as it enables trust and respect, improves barriers to health, and allows for efficacy by ensuring programs utilize experiences from the communities they impact. State reactors also highlighted recent Medicaid community engagement efforts.
Infographics on the Unwinding Provisions in the Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA)
These infographics provide an overview of the key changes to the parameters for unwinding enacted by the Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) as well as an illustrative continuous coverage unwinding timeline under the CAA. The infographics are intended to help states communicate internally or with key stakeholders about the Medicaid continuous enrollment condition provisions in the CAA and can be downloaded to use in communications.
New CMS Guidance on Medicaid Continuous Coverage Unwinding Provisions in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023
On Wednesday, February 8, State Health and Value Strategies hosted a webinar during which experts from Manatt Health reviewed CMS’ recently released State Health Official (SHO) letter related to “unwinding” the Medicaid continuous coverage guarantee, based on provisions included in section 5131 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 (CAA). The webinar reviewed the additional detail and operational expectations of states during the unwinding of Medicaid continuous coverage as laid out in the SHO letter, and discussed key considerations for state policymakers.
Transformational Community Engagement to Advance Health Equity
Within government, policy and programmatic changes are often made without engaging the people they will affect or the people currently experiencing the challenges of existing policies and programs. Community engagement is one of the ways states are attempting to establish and maintain trust and improve the accessibility and quality of services. This issue brief outlines the ways in which such efforts can improve communication, lead to more effective and efficient programs, and result in ongoing collaboration with people who have experienced state-run systems and services. The brief also contains a list of strategies and tactics, which offers options for states to consider when working to advance towards transformational community engagement and achieve their community engagement goals.
State Examples of Medicaid Community Engagement Strategies: Two Case Studies
Community engagement is a key component of health equity work because it fosters trust and mutual respect, unearths unforeseen or unintended barriers to health, and improves efficacy by ensuring programs respond to the experiences of the people they impact. Yet, there is little documentation of how to successfully engage program enrollees, translate engagement into policy change, or resolve challenges related to the resource-intensive nature of engagement. This issue brief provides two case studies highlighting work in Virginia and Colorado to meet these challenges. Each state has invested in coordinated community engagement strategies that amplify the voices of those directly impacted by Medicaid and leverage their input to drive improvements. This pioneering work offers practical examples of how to structure community engagement to foster participation and improve program outcomes.
Exploring the New Social Care Quality Measures: How Do We Define and Measure Social Needs and High-Quality Social Care?
On Thursday, January 26 State Health and Value Strategies co-hosted a webinar with the Social Interventions Research & Evaluation Network (SIREN) at the University of California San Francisco on the new social care quality measures that will launch from many federal and some state agencies. The measures target a range of payer and delivery system reporting entities. They include requirements around social risk screening and, in some cases, social care interventions. The marked variation across these initiatives highlights a key question: How do we define and measure high quality social care?
Click here for webinar recording
Recent Section 1115 Demonstration Approvals Highlight CMS and State Priorities
Under section 1115 authority, states can waive provisions of Medicaid law and obtain federal approval to fund initiatives not otherwise coverable by Medicaid, provided that proposals are budget neutral to the federal government and further the goals of the Medicaid program. In the past six months, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has approved renewals and/or amendments to several long-standing section 1115 demonstrations, showcasing the Biden administration’s priorities for use of 1115 authority. This issue brief describes how recent approvals in Arizona, Arkansas, Massachusetts, Oregon, and Vermont highlight that states and CMS are leveraging 1115 demonstrations to implement new coverage strategies; address social drivers of health; strengthen the primary care and behavioral health delivery systems; institute value-based payment initiatives; and advance health equity.
Helping Consumers Navigate Medicaid, the Marketplace, and Employer Coverage
Many consumers will find the relationship between Medicaid, the marketplace, and employer-sponsored insurance to be more complicated than ever in 2023 as the unwinding of the continuous coverage requirement begins. Much of the focus of Medicaid unwinding planning in states and the federal government has been on helping eligible people keep Medicaid coverage and steering the millions of people losing Medicaid eligibility toward the health insurance marketplace. Less attention has been devoted to the millions of people who are expected to be eligible for employer-sponsored insurance when their Medicaid coverage ends. This issue brief discusses how state Medicaid agencies, state-based marketplaces, labor departments, and employers can play critical roles in helping people understand and navigate their coverage options.
Unwinding the Medicaid Continuous Coverage Requirement—Transitioning to Employer-Sponsored Coverage
While much attention has been paid to how states can approach the unwinding of the continuous coverage requirement to prioritize the retention of Medicaid coverage and transitions to marketplace coverage, less attention has been paid to the role of employer-sponsored insurance. To get a sense for the size of the group that might have employer-sponsored coverage as an option, this issue brief discusses the proportion of individuals with an offer of employer-sponsored coverage by income and state, and the proportion of those offers that are considered affordable based on premium cost.