On November 13, 2009, MMPI partnered with the Massachusetts Health Policy Forum and Community Catalyst to sponsor a forum exploring efforts in Massachusetts to improve quality and control Medicaid prescription drug costs. At the forum, an issue brief was released that detailed implementation of a preferred drug list in the MassHealth program. In addition, speakers talked about the array of tools available to states to improve prescribing and reduce cost growth.

Click here to see the agenda and other materials from the meeting.

MassHealth eligibility has expanded through a series of incremental steps since 1997. This chart shows the populations that have been made eligible for MassHealth as a result of these expansions, by category and income level (relative to the federal poverty guidelines).

On December 22, 2008, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services approved Massachusetts' request to renew the MassHealth Section 1115 Research and Demonstration Waiver (Waiver) for an additional three years, through the end of state fiscal year 2011. The Waiver, which has been in place since 1997, authorizes critical federal funding for several health coverage programs for low-income individuals and for the Commonwealth's safety net health system for uninsured residents. It is the programmatic and financial underpinning of the state's health care reform law. Through the Waiver, over 1 million low-income children, families and individuals receive coverage through MassHealth and Commonwealth Care, the subsidized premium assistance program for low-income adults created by Chapter 58. This report explains how the state's Waiver works.

This issue brief updates "MassHealth and State Fiscal Health: A New Look at the Effects of Medicaid Spending on State Finances," through 2007.

A fact sheet that introduces MassHealth, the Massachusetts Medicaid program, describing its basic structure, benefits and beneficiaries. It examines how enrollment and spending have changed over time and describes some current policy issues and challenges.

An easy-to-use guide describing public health insurance options in Massachusetts and a set of flow charts illustrating the eligibility pathways to these programs for low-income people and families, elderly people, and people with disabilities. Also available on the Pathways to Coverage website.

The 2006 Massachusetts health care reform law included a provision to make Medicaid hospital rate increases contingent upon quality measures, including measures of the reduction of racial and ethnic disparities. To date, no other pay-for-performance programs have incorporated measures of the reduction of racial and ethnic disparities into their incentives. MMPI organized the Massachusetts Medicaid Disparities Policy Roundtable to bring together a group of experts to develop and recommend an approach to implementing the program. The Roundtable's recommendations are detailed in this white paper.

The creation and implementation of the Medicare prescription drug benefit -- "Part D" -- attracted wide national attention and controversy. This paper, produced in collaboration with the Massachusetts Health Policy Forum, looks beyond the anecdotes and gives a progress report on the impact of Part D in Massachusetts for Medicare beneficiaries -- 200,000 of whom are also MassHealth members and for state health programs such as MassHealth and Prescription Advantage.

The issue brief examines how SCHIP is part of the Commonwealth's universal coverage strategy; how SCHIP is funded in Massachusetts; and the funding shortfalls the program now faces. The brief also details how the SCHIP program and funding are integrated with MassHealth, and the implications of that connection for the upcoming negotiations to extend the MassHealth waiver.

This report examines some of the important issues, opportunities and challenges facing the MassHealth program at the outset of a new Governor's administration including renewal of the the MassHealth waiver, improving the value of MassHealth purchasing, rebalancing long-term care, and providing strong leadership and bolstering staff.

This issue brief looks at the terms and conditions of the MassHealth Waiver, approved in July 2006, that will run through FY 2008. The July 2006 Waiver approval incorporates the provisions of the health reform law, which enacted some of the changes required in the initial approval of this Waiver renewal, in January 2005. MMPI produced an analysis of the initial approval last year; this brief updates the earlier one to reflect the terms of the Waiver as they now stand.

The federal Deficit Reduction Act enacted provisions designed to reduce federal Medicaid spending by nearly $5 billion over the next five years. This fact sheet examines two of these provisions in detail and discusses their implications for MassHealth members, administrators and providers.

This report from MMPI and the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center looks at Medicaid spending in relation not only to total public spending, but also to state revenues and overall economic growth. It concludes that, between Fiscal Years 1994 and 2005, Medicaid spending changed very little in relation to the economy as a whole, and therefore was sustainable given the economic growth over that same period. Looking at Medicaid spending with this broader view provides a new context for policy makers as they think about the Medicaid budget, now and in the future.

This issue brief reviews the concept of budget neutrality and, within its constraints, the options available to maximize federal dollars for coverage of the uninsured.