New on the Web 7: March 2002
We've collected information on several new reports and other resources available on the Web that we hope you'll find interesting and useful. Descriptions and links appear below.
Association for Health Center Affiliated Health Plans: "Community Health Center Affiliated Health Plans: A Viable Alternative for Medicaid Managed Care?"
Center for Policy Alternatives: "Stateaction.org"
CMS: "The State Children's Health Insurance Program Annual Enrollment Report"
Commonwealth Fund: "Out-of-Pocket Health Care Expenses for Medicare HMO Beneficiaries: Estimates by Health Status, 1999-2001," "Medicare+Choice 1999-2001: An Analysis of Managed Care Plan Withdrawals and Trends in Benefits and Premiums"
Georgetown University's Institute for Health Care Research and Policy: healthinsuranceinfo.net
Health Affairs: "The Not-So-Sad History of Medicare Cost Containment As Told in One Chart: Solutions for Risings Costs Do Exist, and They Work"
Kaiser Family Foundation: "Florida's Medicaid Prescription Drug Benefit: A Case Study," "States Strive to Limit Medicaid Expenditures for Prescribed Drugs"
RAND: "The Child Policy Project," "Promising Practices Network"
Urban Institute: "The Scope and Impact of Welfare Reform's Immigrant Provisions"
Association for Health Center Affiliated Health Plans
Health plans that are owned by or affiliated with Community Health Centers are playing an increasing role in states' Medicaid managed care arrangements. "Community Health Center Affiliated Health Plans: A Viable Alternative for Medicaid Managed Care?" examines such plans and finds that they are growing rapidly, provide access and quality of care that exceeds those of other Medicaid health plans, and are likely to remain committed to providing care in their underserved communities. (February 2002)
Center for Policy Alternatives
Stateaction.org, from the Center for Policy Alternatives, covers many issues of concern to activists at the state level. The revamped State of the States Web page contains the latest state-by-state indicators covering economic, reproductive health, and children's issues. The site also includes a Progressive Directory that lists of progressive organizations in all 50 states, and it provides quick and easy links to state legislatures. (February 2002)
CMS
CMS has released the latest edition of The State Children's Health Insurance Program Annual Enrollment Report, which covers federal fiscal year 2001 (October 1, 2000-September 30, 2001). The report includes enrollment trends by state, eligibility expansions, enrollment trends by program type, enrollment trends by age groups, enrollment of SCHIP parents, and Title XIX Medicaid enrollment. (February 6, 2002)
Commonwealth Fund
Out-of-Pocket Health Care Expenses for Medicare HMO Beneficiaries: Estimates by Health Status, 1999-2001 concludes that out-of-pocket spending by Medicare+Choice enrollees can be substantial, particularly for those in fair or poor health. The out-of-pocket estimates used in this report reflect four components of enrollee cost-sharing: Part B premiums; supplemental M+C premiums; spending for prescription drugs; and spending for other acute care services, such as emergency room visits. (February 2002)
Medicare+Choice 1999-2001: An Analysis of Managed Care Plan Withdrawals and Trends in Benefits and Premiums compares historical trends in benefits and premiums for plans that left the Medicare+Choice program in 2001 with those that stayed. The report also continues the Fund's analysis of trends in Medicare+Choice benefits and premiums to take into account the response to the Benefits Improvement and Performance Act of 2000 (BIPA) and the shifts in enrollment through March 2001. The authors conclude that "Medicare MCOs cannot provide a long-term solution to the fundamental deficiencies in Medicare's basic benefit package." (February 2002)
Georgetown University's Institute for Health Care Research and Policy
healthinsuranceinfo.net provides online consumer guides for each state and the District of Columbia summarizing laws that protect people when they are trying to get and keep health insurance. These guides include lists of relevant state agencies and glossaries of commonly used terms. The site also offers an online newsletter that contains stories from health care consumers that provide perspective on how private coverage works for people in various circumstances. (March 2002)
Health Affairs
The Not-So-Sad History of Medicare Cost Containment As Told in One Chart: Solutions for Risings Costs Do Exist, and They Work presents a rebuttal to the Health Affairs piece we sent along in our last compilation. The author points to the relatively slow growth rate of federal Medicare expenditures-compared to private health spending per capita-as evidence that government regulations can and have worked in some instances. He also asks whether cost control via government regulation is synonymous with rationing and shows that cost control can be painful or painless. (January 2002)
Kaiser Family Foundation
Florida's Medicaid Prescription Drug Benefit: A Case Study focuses on the state's experience with a number of Medicaid prescription drug cost-control measures. Such measures include a 1997 disease management program, the four-brand drug limit imposed in 2000, and the recent passage of S792, which authorized the development of a preferred drug list. The report also offers interviewees' perspectives on how the various initiatives might affect beneficiaries' health, the factors that influenced the passage of S792, and how the state plans to evaluate the effectiveness of program changes mandated by S792. (February 2002)
Increased spending for prescribed drugs is a major reason that growth in Medicaid spending accelerated in the late 1990s and is expected to remain near double-digit rates in the near future. States Strive to Limit Medicaid Expenditures for Prescribed Drugs presents trends in Medicaid spending for prescribed drugs through 2000, summarizes the flexibility states have in designing their drug benefits, and reviews several strategies that states are using to curb their Medicaid drug budgets. The brief also makes the point that the "federal government might be able to save the states-and itself-far more money than various state efforts to control utilization and garner additional rebates simply by deploying the program's leverage to ratchet up federal rebates." (February 2002)
RAND
RAND, a nonprofit think tank, has launched two new Web sites that address the needs of children through age 18. The Child Policy Project provides up-to-date research findings on issues affecting children, including research on children's health, families and communities, and welfare reform. The Promising Practices Network highlights programs and practices that credible research indicates are effective in improving outcomes for children, youth, and families, organized around three major areas: proven and promising programs, research in brief, and strengthening service delivery. (February 2002)
For the Child Policy Project, go to (http://www.rand.org/child_area/); for the Promising Practices Network, go to (http://www.promisingpractices.net).
Urban Institute
The 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) overhauled the nation's welfare system and redefined immigrants' access to public benefits. The Scope and Impact of Welfare Reform's Immigrant Provisions, which relies on 1995 and 2000 Current Population Survey data, discusses the background and character of the changes introduced by this law and sketches the post-enactment responses of Congress, states, and the courts. The report focuses primarily on families with children whose incomes are below 200 percent of poverty, and it distinguishes between native citizens, naturalized citizens, legal non-citizens, and undocumented immigrants. (also for COC page) (January 2002)
Return to New on the Web Contents
