Insurance, Medicare & Medicaid

This work, winner of the 2011 HSR Impact Award, helped explain the costs and benefits of expanding Medicaid at a time when states were making choices about whether and how to expand coverage under the Affordable Care Act. Evidence helped state policymakers understand a complex set of choices in a highly partisan environment.

AcademyHealth was awarded a PCORI Convening Award that will bring the Medicaid Medical Directors Network together to identify research and translation gaps that can help promote dissemination and implementation uptake.

Experimentation in the Medicaid program creates an opportunity for states to modify their Medicaid programs to better meet enrollees’ health and social needs. Projects under the Research in Transforming Health and Healthcare Systems program examine Medicaid innovation, through Section 1115 Waivers or managed care organizations.

Enrolling in Medicaid immediately following incarceration is an important tool to support successful reentry, particularly for individuals with opioid use disorder and other behavioral health conditions. Many states have policies to suspend Medicaid during incarceration and then reactivate upon release, but little is known about how these policies are implemented and how they are coordinated across agencies (Medicaid and Corrections). AcademyHealth's new project is hoping to identify barriers and facilitators related to linking incarcerated individuals to Medicaid to support reactivation and enrollment of benefits.

AcademyHealth's Evidence-Informed State Health Policy Institute leads this learning collaborative of Medicaid waiver evaluation researchers aimed at examining the policy questions, and study designs, methodologies, data sources and metrics used in Medicaid waiver initiatives.