Tracking Medicaid Enrollment Growth During the COVID-19 Pandemic Databook
The Tracking Medicaid Enrollment Growth During the COVID-19 Pandemic Databook provides a comprehensive, detailed look at Medicaid enrollment trends to-date. Using Medicaid enrollment data from over 40 states, the Databook provides a comprehensive, detailed look at Medicaid enrollment trends from the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic through December 2022. The Databook provides enrollment detail by state across four eligibility categories: expansion adults, children (including those enrolled in CHIP), non-expansion adults, and aged, blind, and disabled individuals. It also compares enrollment trends across expansion and non-expansion states. The latest version of the Databook (as of March 2023) has been updated through December 2022.
Development of Statewide Health Equity Data Standards in Massachusetts
On Thursday, March 23, State Health and Value Strategies hosted a webinar that reviewed the recent adoption of statewide health equity data standards for the collection of self-reported patient demographic information by provider organizations, Medicaid and commercial insurers in Massachusetts. During the webinar, experts from MassHealth (Massachusetts Medicaid) and Bailit Health reviewed the adopted standards as well as a complementary framework for introducing accountability for advancing health equity into value-based contracting. Panelists also described how Massachusetts engaged a wide array of stakeholders in the development process and the plan for dissemination and adoption.
Collection of Race, Ethnicity, Language (REL) Data on Medicaid Applications: New and Updated Information on Medicaid Data Collection Practices in the States, Territories, and District of Columbia
This issue brief documents how race, ethnicity, and language (REL) data are collected by Medicaid programs in the 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and five U.S. territories. This new brief serves as an update to State Health Access Data Assistance Center’s previous brief, providing up-to-date information on Medicaid REL data collection among the states and extending the analysis to include the District of Columbia and the five territories.
Tracking Medicaid Coverage Post the Continuous Coverage Requirement: Using Data Dashboards to Monitor Trends
The Families First Coronavirus Response Act Medicaid “continuous coverage” requirement has allowed people to retain Medicaid coverage and get needed care during the COVID-19 pandemic. When continuous enrollment is discontinued, states will restart eligibility redeterminations, and millions of Medicaid enrollees will be at risk of losing their coverage. The current lack of publicly available and timely Medicaid enrollment, renewal, and disenrollment data will make it difficult to understand exactly who is losing coverage and for what reasons. One effective way to monitor this type of information is through the use of Medicaid enrollment and retention dashboards. This issue brief examines the current status of data collection to assess Medicaid enrollment and retention, summarizes potential forthcoming reporting requirements, and describes some of the best practices states should consider when developing a data dashboard to display this type of information.
IT Systems and Data Strategies to Prepare for Medicaid Continuous Coverage Unwinding
On Wednesday, November 10 State Health and Value Strategies hosted a webinar that provided an overview of strategies for states seeking to ensure that eligible enrollees are able to keep or transition to new affordable health coverage when the Medicaid continuous coverage requirement ends. States will be resuming eligibility and enrollment activities for all enrollees in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and as part of their planning, states have an opportunity to retain coverage gains experienced over the pandemic period by taking steps to ensure that eligible enrollees are able to keep Medicaid/CHIP coverage, and those who are eligible for subsidized Marketplace coverage are transitioned and enrolled. Experts from Manatt Health and McKinsey & Company discussed how states can prepare now by deploying strategies to update enrollee contact information, and make other eligibility and enrollment technology changes to better serve their residents.
Collection of Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) Data: Considerations for Medicaid and Spotlight on Oregon
Thirteen million people identify as part of a sexual or gender minority (SGM) in the United States, and an estimated 1.17 million of those SGM adults (age 18-64 old) have Medicaid as their primary source of health insurance. Although there has been increasing recognition over the last decade that sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) are important determinants of health, the recent coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis has amplified the stark health disparities that many vulnerable populations face. Despite gaps and inconsistencies in state and federal reporting on COVID-19, data continues to show that Black, Indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC) have been disproportionately impacted by both higher risks of infection and poorer health outcomes. However, health-related data about SGM populations is particularly scarce. This brief documents how information describing SGM populations is currently collected at the federal level and in Medicaid. The brief also spotlights Oregon’s recent efforts to improve the collection of SOGI data, and present several issues that states should consider as they look to improve their collection of SOGI data in Medicaid.
Collection of Race, Ethnicity, Language (REL) Data in Medicaid Applications: A 50-state Review of the Current Landscape
This issue brief documents how states are collecting information about race, ethnicity, and language on their Medicaid applications. The information presented here draws from the State Health Access Data Assistance Center’s (SHADAC’s) review of 50 states’ paper Medicaid applications and 33 states’ online Medicaid applications. For this resource, the authors provide an overview of REL data collection standards and examine state Medicaid application’s question structure, answer options, and instructional language. They also provide an overview of the frequency of different iterations of questions and responses and provide state examples to illustrate common and unique data collection practices.
Risk Adjustment Based on Social Factors: State Approaches to Filling Data Gaps
This issue brief examines examples from two state Medicaid programs and one nonprofit quality measurement and reporting organization of the data sources they use to identify patients’ social risk factors when risk-adjusting payments or quality measure performance. Within the brief, we will examine both their approaches to risk adjustment based on social risk factors and how each entity filled their gaps in data on social risk factors. To inform this issue brief, the author reviewed publicly available documentation and articles on the three profiled examples of risk adjustment based on social risk factors.
Analyzing the Fiscal Impact of COVID-19, the Economic Downturn, and Recent Policy Changes: 50-State Databook
As states and Medicaid programs face significant fiscal uncertainty as a result of the COVID-19 public health crisis, the Databook provides projected changes in federal and state Medicaid and CHIP expenditures during calendar years 2020 and 2021 across all fifty states and the District of Columbia for a given scenario and policy response. Taken together, the Databook provides estimates that span across a range of plausible scenarios reflecting increased enrollment and per enrollee spending growth and changes to the duration of the federal Public Health Emergency.
Leveraging American Community Survey (ACS) Data to Address Social Determinants of Health and Advance Health Equity
State Medicaid programs are increasingly seeking to understand and address social factors that contribute to poor health—such as food insecurity, unstable housing, and a lack of access to social supports—in order to lower costs, improve outcomes for their members, and advance health equity. To inform this work of addressing the social determinants of health (SDOH) and advancing health equity, states and Medicaid officials need data in order to identify priority areas of unmet social and economic needs, execute SDOH initiatives, and monitor and evaluate the impacts of these programs. Increasingly, states are leveraging a broad array of data sources to support efforts to address health equity. While those sources closest to the Medicaid program are the most widely used, each has advantages and disadvantages. This brief focuses on how Medicaid programs can use data from one federal survey, the American Community Survey (ACS), to inform and target interventions that seek to address social determinants of health and advance health equity. This brief also highlights relevant examples from states that use SDOH and health equity measures from the ACS, including which measures and what they are used for.