Effect of Medicaid payment on rehabilitation care for nursing home residents

There is considerable interest in examining how Medicaid payment affects nursing home care. This study examines the effect of Medicaid payment methods and reimbursement rates on the delivery of rehabilitation therapy to Medicaid nursing home residents in six States from 1992-1995. In States that changed payment from prospective facility-specific to prospective case-mix adjusted payment methods, Medicaid residents received more rehabilitation therapy after the change. While residents in States using case-mix adjusted payment rates for Medicaid payment were more likely to receive rehabilitation than residents in States using prospective facility-specific Medicaid payment, the differences were general and not specific to Medicaid residents. Retrospective payment for Medicaid resident care was associated with greater use of therapy for Medicaid residents.     

Medicaid managed care payment rates in 1998.

This paper reports on a new survey of state Medicaid managed care payment rates. We collected rate data for Medicaid's Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC)/Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and poverty-related populations and made adjustments to make the data comparable across states. The results show a slightly more than twofold variation in capitation rates among states, caused primarily by fee-for-service spending levels and demographics. There is a very low correlation between the variation in Medicaid capitation rates among states and the variations in Medicare's adjusted average per capita cost. The data are not sufficient to answer questions about the adequacy of rates but should help to further policy discussions and research.     

The effect of Medicaid payment generosity on access and use among beneficiaries

OBJECTIVE: This study examines the effects of Medicaid payment generosity on access and care for adult and child Medicaid beneficiaries. DATA SOURCE: Three years of the National Surveys of America's Families (1997, 1999, 2002) are linked to the Urban Institute Medicaid capitation rate surveys, the Area Resource File, and the American Hospital Association survey files. STUDY DESIGN: In order to identify the effect of payment generosity apart from unmeasured differences across areas, we compare the experiences of Medicaid beneficiaries with groups that should not be affected by Medicaid payment policies. To assure that these groups are comparable to Medicaid beneficiaries, we reweight the data using propensity score methods. We use a difference-in-differences model to assess the effects of Medicaid payment generosity on four categories of access and use measures (continuity of care, preventive care, visits, and perceptions of provider communication and quality of care). PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Higher payments increase the probability of having a usual source of care and the probability of having at least one visit to a doctor and other health professional for Medicaid adults, and produce more positive assessments of the health care received by adults and children. However, payment generosity has no effect on the other measures that we examined, such as the probability of receiving preventive care or the probability of having unmet needs. CONCLUSIONS: Higher payment rates can improve some aspects of access and use for Medicaid beneficiaries, but the effects are not dramatic.     

New directions in Medicaid payment for hospital care

Medicaid now pays for 20 percent of all inpatient stays and plays an especially important role in funding obstetric, pediatric, and mental health care. In coming years, policy decisions on inpatient payment may be the most consequential since diagnosis-related groups (DRGs) were introduced two decades ago. This study describes Medicaid's growing role in purchasing inpatient care, reports Medicaid-specific results from an evaluation of three DRG algorithms, provides a case study of a new payment method designed in Mississippi, and summarizes recent developments in paying for quality.     

State Medicaid fees and access to primary care physicians

Medicaid and uninsured patients are disadvantaged in access to care and are disproportionately Black and Hispanic. Using a national audit of primary care physicians, we examine the relationship between state Medicaid fees for primary care services and access for Medicaid, Medicare, uninsured, and privately insured patients who differ by race/ethnicity and sex. We found that states with higher Medicaid fees had higher probabilities of appointment offers and shorter wait times for Medicaid patients, and lower probabilities of appointment offers and longer wait times for uninsured patients. Appointment offers and wait times for Medicare and privately insured patients were unaffected by Medicaid fees. At mean state Medicaid fees, our analysis predicts a 27‐percentage‐point disadvantage for Medicaid versus Medicare in appointment offers. This decreases to 6 percentage points when Medicaid and Medicare fees are equal, suggesting that permanent fee parity with Medicare could eliminate most of the disparity in appointment offers for Medicaid patients. The predicted decrease in the disparity is smaller for Black and Hispanic patients than for White patients. Our research highlights the importance of considering the effects of policy on nontarget patient groups, and the consequences of seemingly race‐neutral policies on racial/ethnic and sex‐based disparities.     

A comparison study of access to health care under a Medicaid managed care program.

This article investigates the health care and insurance status of a low-income urban area in East Tennessee. The article reviews the background of TennCare, a compulsory Medicaid managed care program initiated in Tennessee in 1994. The study compared TennCare recipients with other insurance groups on key demographic and access variables. Possible explanations for how TennCare recipients rate their care also were examined. Qualitative analysis revealed accounts of long waiting periods, out-of-town specialist care, problems with obtaining pharmaceuticals, and general confusion about the new system. Implications of these findings for social work policy practitioners are discussed, and suggestions for alleviating the burden on patients are offered.     

Transportation brokerage services and Medicaid beneficiaries' access to care

Objective. To examine the effect of capitated transportation brokerage services on Medicaid beneficiaries' access to care and expenditures.
Data Sources/Study Setting. The study period from 1996 to 1999 corresponds to the period of a natural experiment during which Georgia and Kentucky implemented transportation brokerage services. Effects were estimated for asthmatic children and diabetic adults.
Study Design. We used difference-in-differences models to assess the effects of transportation brokerage services on access to care, measured by Medicaid expenditures and health services use. The study design is strengthened by the staggered implementation dates between states and within each state.
Principal Findings. For asthmatic children, transportation brokerage services increased nonemergency transportation expenditures and the likelihood of using any services; reductions in monthly expenditures more than offsetting the increased transportation costs. For diabetic adults, nonemergency transportation costs decreased despite increased monthly use of health services; average monthly medical expenditures and the likelihood of hospital admission for an ambulatory care-sensitive condition (ACSC) also decreased.
Conclusions. The shift to transportation brokerage services improved access to care among Medicaid beneficiaries and decreased the expenditures. The increase in access combined with reduced hospitalizations for asthmatic children and ACSC admissions for diabetic adults are suggestive of improvements in health outcomes.     

Medicare physician payment reform: its effect on access to care

This study analyzed a specific indicator condition, congestive heart failure (CHF), to see if there is evidence that physician payment reform (PPR) has had an effect on access to care for Medicare beneficiaries. If there was a decrease in access to ambulatory care services associated with PPR, one would expect to see an increase in hospitalizations for CHF in the period after PPR was implemented This analysis examined the trend in rates of hospitalization for CHF for the overall Medicare population and for selected vulnerable subgroups. No significant discontinuity was found in hospitalizations for CHF with the implementation of PPR.     

A comparison of Medicaid and non-Medicaid obstetrical care in California

The use of prenatal care and rates of low birth weight were examined among four groups of women who delivered in California in October 1983. Medicaid paid for the deliveries of two groups, and two groups were not so covered. The analyses suggest that longer Medicaid enrollment improved the use of prenatal care. The association between prenatal care and birth weight was less clear. For women under Medicaid, measures of infant and maternal morbidity, hospital characteristics, and Medicaid eligibility were all statistically related to charges, payments, and length of stay for the delivery hospitalization.     

The impact of obstetrical liability on access to perinatal care in the rural United States.

Liability issues have caused large numbers of obstetrical providers, particularly family and general practitioners, to discontinue offering perinatal care in rural areas. Losses of even small numbers of rural obstetrical providers can severely limit access to care for large geographic areas. A lack of access to local obstetrical care can result in less than adequate prenatal care and in potential delays in the diagnosis and care of acute perinatal complications. Women who live in these underserved rural communities suffer increased adverse birth outcomes, leading to significantly higher medical costs. Proposed solutions to the problem include risk management programs associated with reduced liability premiums; increased Medicaid reimbursement for obstetrical care; health department subsidies to offset insurance premiums for rural obstetrical care; and programs in predoctoral and residency training designed to identify, assess and address the health care needs of rural areas. Although some measure of success has resulted from these efforts, more systematic and comprehensive policy changes are needed to meet the challenge of this crisis.     

Health-based payment for HIV/AIDS in Medicaid managed care programs.

In recent years, State Medicaid programs have begun adopting health-based payment systems to help ensure quality care for people living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), and to ensure equity for the managed care organizations (MCOs) in which these people are enrolled. In this article, the authors discuss reasons why such payment systems are needed and describe AIDS-specific capitation rates that have been adopted in several State Medicaid waiver programs. The authors also examine comprehensive risk-adjustment systems both within Medicaid and outside the program. Several research questions needing further work are discussed.     

Low-income persons' access to health care: NMCUES Medicaid data

Data from the National Medical Care Utilization and Expenditure Survey (NMCUES) are presented on access to medical care for low-income people in 1980. NMCUES was a national probability household survey jointly sponsored by the National Center for Health Statistics and the Health Care Financing Administration. NMCUES also included four State Medicaid Household Surveys. Data from both the national sample, for all low-income people, and from the four State surveys, for Medicaid people, were included in this analysis. The NMCUES data provided several measures which were previously unavailable on Medicaid experience, in particular, detailed Medicaid eligibility information in combination with income, health status, and health care use. This information can provide a comparison between access to care for those covered by Medicaid, and other low-income persons. In 1980 Medicaid covered a minority of poor and low-income people, only 44 percent of the poor younger than 65 years of age and 38 percent of poor people 65 years of age and older. While almost all elderly had Medicare coverage, about 25 percent of younger low-income people had no form of health insurance, compared with only 9 percent of nonpoor persons who were uninsured. Another measure of access is a regular source of care, the "place where a person goes for health care when sick." In 1980, 15 percent of people younger than 65 who were covered by Medicaid had no regular source of care. This is similar to the rate for the privately insured. However, the types of providers that were cited as the regular source of care differed.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

State Medicaid coverage and access to care for low-income adults

OBJECTIVE: Budgetary pressures have led some states to limit Medicaid eligibility. We evaluated access to care for all low-income adults by the extent of state Medicaid coverage. METHODS: Current Population Survey data compiled by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured were used to rank the 48 continental states by the extent of Medicaid coverage for low-income non-elderly adults during 2000-2003. Data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System for 2000-2003 were used to assess indicators of access to care, including being unable to see a physician due to cost, not obtaining routine checkups, and four preventive services for appropriate age groups by state. Access gaps were calculated between low-income (under $25,000/year) and high-income ($50,000 or more/year) adults within each state to control for unmeasured economic and health system differences between states. RESULTS: Access gaps between high and low-income people who could not see physicians due to cost were significantly smaller in states with the broadest Medicaid coverage compared with states with the narrowest coverage (19.2% vs. 23.7%, p=.003). Significantly smaller access gaps also occurred in states with broader Medicaid coverage for cholesterol testing (16.0% vs. 18.7%, p=.01), and Pap testing (6.0% vs. 10.8%, p=.002), but not colorectal cancer screening (13.3% vs. 12.5%, p=.28), mammography (14.3% vs. 19.7%, p=.07), and routine checkup within two years (8.0% vs. 9.3%, p=.10). CONCLUSIONS: A state's level of Medicaid coverage was associated with access to physicians' services, cholesterol testing, and cervical cancer screening for low-income adults. Broad Medicaid coverage may be an effective strategy for states to improve access to care and preventive services for low-income adults.     

Medicare and Medicaid physician payment incentives.

The incentives in the Medicare and Medicaid physician payment systems and their effects on six interrelated aspects of health care costs and beneficiary access to care were analyzed. Research results and data presented indicate that Medicare and Medicaid physician payment incentives are inconsistent with current public policy goals of (1) containing inflation in fees and expenditures, (2) encouraging physician participation in public programs, (3) improving the geographic and specialty distributions of physicians, (4) encouraging primary care instead of surgery, and also outpatient rather than inpatient treatment.     

Medicaid managed care payment methods and capitation rates in 2001

We present results from a survey of Medicaid managed care payment methods and rates in 2001 for AFDC/TANF and poverty-related Medicaid populations, updating a similar survey of 1998 rates. Rates were adjusted for differences in age-sex groupings, maternity payments, and service carve-outs. A twofold variation in Medicaid capitation rates remains, although there was a change in the composition of states at the top and bottom. The data also show that the growth in Medicaid capitation rates between 1998 and 2001 averaged 18 percent, considerably more than the increase in Medicare+Choice rates.