- ACA Implementation & State Health Reform
- Coverage and Access
- Federal/State Issues
- Medicaid and CHIP
- Population and Public Health
- Providers and Services
- Acute Care
- Assisted Living
- Behavioral Health
- Child Development Services
- Chronic Care Management
- Community Health Centers
- Developmental Screening
- Early Childhood Services
- EPSDT
- Family Planning
- Federally Qualified Health Centers
- Home & Community Based Services
- Long Term Services & Supports
- Medical Homes & Health Homes
- Mental Health
- Nursing Homes
- Oral Health
- Preventive Care
- Primary Care
- Safety Net Providers
- Quality, Cost, and Health System Performance
- ACOs
- Adverse Event Reporting
- Care Transitions
- Comparative Effectiveness
- Cost Sharing
- Delivery System Reform
- Fraud and Abuse
- Health Care Workforce
- Health Information Technology
- Managed Care
- Medical Homes & Health Homes
- Medical Malpractice
- Patient Safety
- Payment Reform
- Performance Measurement
- Provider Payment Policy
- Quality Oversight
- Specific Populations
- Adolescents
- Childless Adults
- Children
- Children with Special Health Care Needs
- Dual Eligibles
- Elders
- Families
- Low Income People
- Parents
- People with Chronic Conditions
- People with Developmental Disabilities
- Transitional Youth
- Vulnerable Populations
- Young Adults
- Youth
- Youth in Foster Care System
- Youth in Juvenile Justice System
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Oklahoma's Web Portal: Fostering Care Coordination Between Primary Care and Community Service Providers
This is the second in the series of Assuring Better Child Health and Development (ABCD) III Innovation Briefs. This new brief focuses on the web-based referral and tracking system ("web portal") that Oklahoma has built into its pre-existing Preventive Service Reminder System. The state designed this web portal to improve care coordination for children with or at risk for developmental delays. Oklahoma is already considering ways to adapt the web portal for other services and populations.
February 2012» -
Building Electronic Information-Sharing Systems to Support Care Coordination in Illinois
This is the first in a series of Assuring Better Child Health and Development (ABCD) III Innovation Briefs. This brief focuses on electronic information-sharing systems that Illinois is building or adapting to improve care coordination for children with or at risk of developmental delays. Illinois is poised to improve care coordination by implementing an electronic referral initiation and feedback system. These system changes have implications for information sharing to support care coordination statewide and for other populations.
November 2011» -
Reducing Racial and Ethnic Disparities Through Health Care Reform: State Experience
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA) provides an opportunity for states to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in health and health care. As states roll out health care reform implementation, they can use disparities data to inform their actions. This issue brief was prepared by NASHP for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). It provides examples of how states can integrate health equity into health care reform and insurance exchange implementation.
August 2011» -
The Role of Children's Coverage Programs in a Changing Health Care Landscape: EPSDT, CHIP, and Health Care Reform
With the support of The Commonwealth Fund and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, in late 2010 NASHP convened an invitational leadership forum on the role of children’s coverage programs in a changing health care landscape. Participants included representatives from state Medicaid EPSDT and CHIP programs, Maternal and Child Health Title V, CMS and other children's health care experts. This brief captures the themes and explores the opportunities and challenges identified in that meeting to lay out a vision for how EPSDT and CHIP can work together to improve health coverage for children in the context of health care reform.
July 2011» -
Linking Children to Services: Building on Community Assets to Pilot Test Improvement Strategies
The five states participating in the third Assuring Better Child Health and Development (ABCD) learning consortium have gone through an extensive planning process to set the stage for implementation of interventions to improve coordination among providers serving children in pilot communities. This document describes 1) how Arkansas, Illinois, Minnesota, Oklahoma, and Oregon are building on existing local partnerships and assets to organize community pilots, and 2) preliminary lessons that have emerged from these states, including new federal opportunities to bolster community partnerships that will improve service linkages for children.
December 2010» -
Collaborating with Health Centers to Leverage HIT for System Improvement
Early in 2010, NASHP hosted a webinar that brought together individuals from Massachusetts, Oregon, and Tennessee with experience in collaborating with health centers around Health Information Technology (HIT) activities to discuss ways in which state agencies and federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) are working together to use HIT and health information exchange (HIE) funding opportunities from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) to achieve mutual goals for health system improvements. This briefing draws from and builds on this webinar to offer an overview of opportunities, explore these states’ experiences, and provide concluding observations. This brief was developed through a National Cooperative Agreement (NCA) sponsored by the Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) Bureau of Primary Health Care (BPHC).April 2010» -
State Innovations in EPSDT
Between 2007 and 2009, the National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP), with the support of The Commonwealth Fund worked with the Medicaid staff tasked with administering the EPSDT program (EPSDT coordinators) to support their efforts to improve children's access to health and developmental services as well as the quality of those services. This technical report outlines eight innovative strategies states are using to achieve these goals and highlights three major goals that states were seeking to achieve for their EPSDT program.
February 2010» -
Opportunities and Recommendations for State-Federal Coordination to Improve Health System Performance: A Focus on Patient Safety
NASHP convened a roundtable of state and national health policy leaders in October 2009 to discuss opportunities for states and the federal government to develop congruent policies to promote patient safety. This brief summarizes recommendations that emerged from that meeting. Participants identified four criteria to use in selecting issues for state-federal coordination: (1) degree of readiness for change, (2) symbolic value and potential to send broad messages about priorities, (3) potential to avoid harm from non-aligned policies, and (4) potential for cost savings. Considering these criteria, participants recommended three topics as especially worthy of future dialogue: reducing healthcare-associated infections (HAIs), decreasing preventable hospital readmissions, and avoiding hospitalizations for ambulatory care-sensitive (ACS) conditions.January 2010» -
Enhanced Pregnancy Benefit Packages: Worth Another Look
Through their Medicaid programs, states may offer specialized pregnancy benefits to women that target risks contributing to poor pregnancy outcomes. Though such benefits are categorized as “optional” Medicaid services, they are seen by many as critical to optimizing maternal health and positive birth outcomes. These enhanced pregnancy benefits support women in having healthy pregnancies and contribute to improved infant and maternal health. Congress gave states the option to offer enhanced pregnancy benefits to pregnant women on Medicaid in 1985, and many states quickly took advantage of this opportunity, adding comprehensive non-clinical and medical pregnancy services to their Medicaid benefit packages. The use of enhanced pregnancy benefits peaked in 1993 when forty-four states provided at least one enhanced pregnancy benefit through Medicaid.January 2010 -
Supporting State Policymakers’ Implementation of Federal Health Reform
States will have enormous short-term and long-term needs for assistance as they grapple with federal health reform legislation. Significant federal and private resources to support state-level implementation will be necessary. Implementation support must be defined and coordinated quickly. Technical assistance must be provided in a manner that corresponds with state needs. State officials should be involved in the design of technical assistance so that it is most effective given varied state circumstances, needs, and capacities. Technical assistance should inspire innovation among leaders even as it helps all states meet minimum standards of performance.November 2009»
