New Findings from Indiana University Update Understanding of Managed Care (Care Management Reduced Infant Mortality for Medicaid Managed Care Enrollees In Ohio)

2020 APR 17 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Research findings on Managed Care are discussed in a new report. According to news reporting out of Bloomington, Indiana, by NewsRx editors, research stated, “In 2012, the Ohio Department of Medicaid introduced requirements for enhanced care management to be delivered by Medicaid managed care organizations (MCOs). This study evaluated the impact of care management on reducing infant mortality in the largest Medicaid MCO in Ohio.”

Financial support for this research came from CareSource.

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from Indiana University, “Observational study using infant and maternal individual-level enrollment and claims data (2009-2015), which used a quasi-experimental research design built on a sibling-comparison approach that controls for within-family confounders. Using individual-level data from the largest MCO in Ohio, we estimated linear probability models to examine the effect of infant engagement in care management on infant mortality. We used a within-family fixed-effects research design to determine if care management reduced infant mortality and estimated models separately for healthy infants and nonhealthy infants. Infant engagement in care management was associated with a reduction of 7.4 percentage points (95% CI, -10.7 to -4.1; P< .001) in infant mortality among the most vulnerable infants, those identified as not well at birth. This effect was larger in recent years and likely driven by new statewide enhanced care management requirements. Infant mortality was unchanged for healthy infants engaged in care management (coefficient = 0.03; 95% CI, -0.01 to 0.08). This study provides evidence that care management can be effective in reducing infant mortality among Medicaid MCO enrollees, a population at high risk of mortality.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Few infants were engaged in care management, suggesting to policy makers that there is room for many additional infants to benefit from this intervention.”

For more information on this research see: Care Management Reduced Infant Mortality for Medicaid Managed Care Enrollees In Ohio. The American Journal of Managed Care, 2020;26(3):127-131. The American Journal of Managed Care can be contacted at: Managed Care & Healthcare Communications Llc, 666 Plainsboro Rd, Ste 300, Plainsboro, NJ 08536, USA.

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting A.J. Hollingsworth, Indiana University, ONeill Sch Publ & Environm Affairs, Bloomington, IN 47405, United States. Additional authors for this research include A.M. Kranz and D. Freund.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.37765/ajmc.2020.42637. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

(Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world.)