Issue Briefs | Aug 1, 2018

Safeguarding Financial Stability of Provider Risk-Bearing Organizations

Erin Taylor and Michael Bailit, Bailit Health

JoAnn Volk, Georgetown University Center on Health Insurance Reforms

An increasingly common feature of health care payment models is the transfer of financial risk from payers to providers for health care services delivered to a defined population of patients. In these “value-based payment” models, providers accept financial responsibility (i.e., liability for financial losses) should spending for most, or all, services for an attributed patient population exceed targeted levels. This financial liability is often shared with payers, and maximum risk exposure is typically capped. This issue brief explores options for states as they consider oversight of risk-bearing organizations , with a focus on states that have elected to act to protect against provider insolvency.

The State Health Policy Highlight, Risk-Bearing Organizations Oversight: State Considerations, reviews specific state considerations when overseeing risk-bearing organizations. An accompaniment to the issue brief, Case Studies: State Examples of Safeguarding Financial Stability of Provider Risk-Bearing Organizations, provides a deeper dive into approaches in four states: California, Massachusetts, New York and Texas.

State Health and Value Strategies hosted a companion webinar, Safeguarding Financial Stability of Provider Risk-Bearing Organizations, based on the issue brief that provided an overview of options for states as they consider oversight of risk-bearing organizations (RBOs) as well as a deeper dive on the Massachusetts approach.


Expert Perspectives

May 24, 2023

State Dashboards to Monitor the Unwinding of the Medicaid Continuous Coverage Requirement

The unwinding of the Medicaid continuous coverage requirement represents the largest nationwide coverage transition since the Affordable Care Act, with significant health equity implications. Given the intense focus on coverage transitions during the unwinding, some states have initiated plans to publish a data dashboard to monitor progress. To date, the District of Columbia and 15 states have published unwinding data in a visual dashboard format (this does not include states with pre-existing enrollment dashboards that don’t specifically identify unwinding cohorts). This expert perspective now includes an interactive map with the links to all the dashboards and states publishing CMS unwinding reports. SHVS will continue to update the EP and map as more states publish their unwinding data.

May 12, 2023

Sequencing Communications to Encourage Coverage Transitions

The unwinding of the Medicaid continuous coverage requirement represents the largest nationwide coverage transition since the Affordable Care Act. This presents State-Based Marketplaces with an opportunity to target outreach efforts to those audiences who have recently lost Medicaid or CHIP to help eligible individuals retain access to affordable healthcare through the Marketplace. This expert perspective focuses on best practices for timing and strategy in consumer outreach to consumers that are no longer eligible for Medicaid to help states develop a consumer “chase campaign.”