The March 2016 Report to Congress on Medicaid and CHIP addresses Medicaid payments to safety-net hospitals, new approaches to behavioral health care delivery, and the future of children’s coverage–three areas in which Medicaid and CHIP play significant roles.
The first three chapters of the March report reprise MACPAC’s inaugural Report to Congress on Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital Payment, originally released online in February 2016 in compliance with a provision of the Protecting Access to Medicare Act (P.L. 113-93). Noting the need for better targeting of disproportionate share hospital (DSH) payments to hospitals serving the greatest number of low-income patients, the Commission recommends that the Secretary of Health and Human Services collect and report data on the full range of hospitals’ Medicaid payments and sources of non-federal share to facilitate this task.
Chapter 4 of the March report reviews the efforts in multiple states and at the federal level to integrate behavioral and physical health to improve outcomes for Medicaid beneficiaries and reduce program costs.
Chapter 5 presents the Commission’s analysis of families’ out-of-pocket spending for children in exchange coverage compared to out-of-pocket spending for children in separate CHIP. This chapter is one of a number of analyses that lay the groundwork for recommendations on the future of children’s coverage that the Commission plans to release by the end of 2016.
Chapters:
- Overview of Medicaid Policy on Disproportionate Share Hospital Payments
- Analysis of Current and Future Disproportionate Share Hospital Allotments
- Integration of Behavioral and Physical Health Services in Medicaid
- Improving Data as the First Step to a More Targeted Disproportionate Share Hospital Policy
- Design Considerations for the Future of Children’s Coverage: Focus on Affordability