Insurance, Medicare & Medicaid

The Affordable Care Act enacted Medicaid expansion with hopes that more states would provide health insurance to low-income Americans. This ‘plain language summary’ reviews recent research published in AcademyHealth’s official journal HSR which shows that early Medicaid expansion in six states led to an increase in the total number of physician visits but did not lead to an increase in total physician participation.

New research indicates Medicare Advantage enrollment provides favorable outcomes over traditional Medicare for those with mental health issues and those at end-of-life, indicating a high efficiency of care aligning with beneficiaries’ preferences. This ‘plain language summary’ reviews recent research published in AcademyHealth's official journal, HSR, which addresses the role of Medicare Advantage in mental health care and end-of-life outcomes for older adults.

This analysis of a rural community’s efforts to address the health and social needs of its low-income residents found that Medicaid members faced resource challenges, including insufficient affordable housing and limited numbers of bilingual providers and behavioral health providers.

This Data Note examines the extent of community health center involvement in systematic efforts to screen patients for the presence of social determinants of health and concludes that targeted grant support and Medicaid performance investments for the costs associated with social risk screening and reporting are needed for universal engagement by community health centers.

This report describes parents’ experiences with their children’s Medi-Cal coverage and their recommendations for improving children’s health care, as well as how health plans can collaborate with families on systems change.

Research nominated as the best abstract for each theme from the 2022 Call for Abstracts explores topics related to patient and consumer needs, Medicaid access and coverage, COVID-19, and more.

The sixth post in AcademyHealth’s Medicaid Health Equity series summarizes five recommendations for researchers to measure and interpret racial disparities in health care more accurately.

Among Medicaid Managed Care Organizations, the COVID-19 pandemic has emphasized the importance of addressing member social needs, and the need for broader consideration of what constitutes social determinants of health from a health care delivery standpoint.

AcademyHealth’s National Health Policy Conference pre-conference webinar highlighted federal and state policy priorities for 2022. The virtual event featured a keynote from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure.