Researchers at Cornell University Report New Data on Managed Care (Assessing New York’s health care disparities using health plan quality data): Managed Care

2026 MAR 30 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Researchers detail new data in Managed Care. According to news originating from Honeoye Falls, New York, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “To assess whether New York’s extensive use of waiver programs and financial incentives for quality provided to Medicaid managed care plans resulted in reduced health care disparities by using the newly developed Health Insurance Disparities Index (HeIDI) to compare the performance of commercial/private vs Medicaid plans in New York (and separately for New York’s Medicaid Health and Recovery Plan [HARP] plans for individuals with severe mental illness or substance use disorder) vs the nation as a whole. The HeIDI methodology utilizes public quality metrics reporting from the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set to produce an annual score for disparities comparing the performance of commercial/private health maintenance organizations (HMOs) nationally vs Medicaid HMOs nationally, and similarly for New York.”

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from Cornell University, “Using NCQA’s and New York’s e-Quality Assurance Reporting Requirements (eQARR) data sets for measurement years 2019-2023, performance was analyzed employing the HeIDI methodology. HeIDI scores were compared between national Medicaid plans and New York’s Medicaid mainstream plans and HARP plans. Between 2019 and 2023, New York’s Medicaid plans consistently outperformed national Medicaid plans by a factor of 2. New York’s HARP plans similarly outperformed the national mainstream Medicaid plans during the same time frame. This suggests that New York’s approach to managing Medicaid produces more equitable care between enrollees with different income levels compared with plans nationally. Compared with other states, New York has made substantial progress in its Medicaid managed care programs.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Future research questions include identifying specific New York initiatives or health plan characteristics that drive this superior performance.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Assessing New York’s health care disparities using health plan quality data. The American Journal of Managed Care, 2025. The American Journal of Managed Care can be contacted at: Managed Care & Healthcare Communications Llc, 666 Plainsboro Rd, Ste 300, Plainsboro, NJ 08536, USA.

The news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained from Joseph A. Stankaitis, Cornell University Brooks School of Public Policy, 24 Hiram Way, Honeoye Falls, NY 14472. Additional authors for this research include Han Pham, Samyukta Singh and Sean Nicholson.

The publisher’s contact information for the The American Journal of Managed Care is: Managed Care & Healthcare Communications Llc, 666 Plainsboro Rd, Ste 300, Plainsboro, NJ 08536, USA.

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