Study Results from J. Seibert and Colleagues Broaden Understanding of Medicare and Medicaid (Use of Quality Measures for Medicaid Behavioral Health…

Study Results from J. Seibert and Colleagues Broaden Understanding of Medicare and Medicaid (Use of Quality Measures for Medicaid Behavioral Health Services by State Agencies: Implications for Health Care Reform)

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Managed Care Weekly Digest -- New research on Medicare and Medicaid is the subject of a report. According to news reporting originating from Ann Arbor, Michigan, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, "The structure-process-outcome quality framework espoused by Donabedian provides a conceptual way to examine and prioritize behavioral health quality measures used by states. This report presents an environmental scan of the quality measures and satisfaction surveys that state Medicaid managed care and behavioral health agencies used prior to Medicaid expansion in 2014."

Our news editors obtained a quote from the research, "Data were collected by reviewing online documents related to Medicaid managed care contracts for behavioral health, quality strategies, quality improvement plans, quality and performance indicators data, annual outcomes reports, performance measure specification manuals, legislative reports, and Medicaid waiver requests for proposals. Information was publicly available for 29 states. Most states relied on process measures, along with some structure and outcome measures. Although all states reported on at least one process measure of behavioral health quality, 52% of states did not use any outcomes measures and 48% of states had no structure measures. A majority of the states (69%) used behavioral health measures from the National Committee for Quality Assurance's Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set, and all but one state in the sample (97%) used consumer experience-of-care surveys. Many states supplemented these data with locally developed behavioral health indicators that rely on administrative and nonadministrative data. State Medicaid agencies are using nationally recognized as well as local measures to assess quality of behavioral health care."

According to the news editors, the research concluded: "Findings indicate a need for additional nationally endorsed measures in the area of substance use disorders and treatment outcomes."

For more information on this research see: Use of Quality Measures for Medicaid Behavioral Health Services by State Agencies: Implications for Health Care Reform. Psychiatric Services, 2015;66(6):585-591. Psychiatric Services can be contacted at: Amer Psychiatric Publishing, Inc, 1000 Wilson Boulevard, Ste 1825, Arlington, VA 22209-3901, USA (see also Medicare and Medicaid).

The news editors report that additional information may be obtained by contacting J. Seibert, Truven Hlth Analyt, Ann Arbor, MI, United States. Additional authors for this research include S. Fields, C.A. Fullerton, T.L. Mark, S. Malkani, C. Walsh, E. Ehrlich, M. Imshaug and M. Tabrizi.

Keywords for this news article include: Michigan, Ann Arbor, United States, Health Policy, Medicare and Medicaid, North and Central America

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