Issue Briefs | Nov 28, 2017

Value-Based Innovation by State Public Employee Health Benefits Programs

Michael Bailit, Megan Burns and Mary Beth Dyer, Bailit Health

In late March 2017, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s State Health and Value Strategies (SHVS) program convened a meeting of public employee purchasers from multiple states to share strategies and learnings to promote value through their purchasing and benefit design work. The meeting participants described innovations in three areas: value-based payment; incentivizing selection of high-value providers; and incentivizing use of high-value services.

Value-Based Innovation by State Public Employee Health Benefits Programs provides an overview of three areas of value-based innovation and then affords a deeper examination into specific examples of state employee purchaser activity in California, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Tennessee, and Washington. Despite their differences in size and scope, these state health care purchasers found they could learn from their colleagues in other states as they strive to improve the value of care. For a summary of the examples from the six states, we have also published an Overview that highlights policy innovations and findings to date.


Expert Perspectives

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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.

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States Have New Flexibility to Add Adult Dental Care to Essential Health Benefits

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