This report by Colleen Barry of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health explores opportunities and issues around integrating behavioral health care and primary care under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and payment and delivery system reforms in Massachusetts. The report provides preliminary recommendations on how these major policy changes might be implemented with the goal of improving the coordination, quality and outcomes of mental health and addiction care in the Commonwealth.

This poll, fielded in late September 2011 and led by Robert Blendon at the Harvard Opinion Research Program, probed 1002 Massachusetts adults on various questions surrounding health care costs, including their perceptions of major cost drivers, who they believe should take the lead on addressing costs and how important is it for the state to take major action. The results reveal that the public is greatly concerned over rising costs and ready for the state to take major actions to tackle them.

This budget brief describes the sections of the Fiscal Year 2012 (FY 2012) final budget bill as signed by the legislature and including the Governor's vetoes' that are relevant to MassHealth (Medicaid) and other programs that support health care coverage for the state's low- and moderate-income populations. It is the final in a series of fact sheets published by the Massachusetts Medicaid Policy Institute (MMPI) and produced by the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center in partnership with the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute.

This report, by Beth Waldman from Bailit Health Purchasing and Kate Nordahl of the Massachusetts Medicaid Policy Institute, provides an in-depth discussion of the provisions from the Affordable Care Act (ACA) which impact Medicaid programs and how these provisions will be applied in Massachusetts.

This toolkit offers resources to help states design and realize a successful public education and marketing campaign to support the implementation of health reform.  Click here for accompanying audio, video and print resources.

New analysis by MMPI examining the growth in MassHealth enrollment since passage of the state's health reform law. This analysis shows that most of the growth in MassHealth enrollment (76 percent) has been in eligibility categories that existed prior to reform, and therefore would have occurred in the absence of the state's health reform law.

Massachusetts groundbreaking 2006 health reform law served as a model in many respects for the insurance coverage provisions of the 2010 federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. This report by Alan G. Raymond and funded by the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation presents an overview of key lessons from Massachusetts that could be relevant to stakeholders working to implement health reform in other states and nationally. Key lessons include: ongoing stakeholder engagement in health reform facilitates implementation and helps overcome inevitable obstacles; and close coordination between Medicaid and new public insurance programs is needed to maximize enrollment and retention while also reducing redundancy and administrative costs.

This budget brief describing the Governor's Fiscal Year 2012 (FY 2012) budget proposal for MassHealth (Medicaid) and other health care programs is the first in a series of fact sheets that will be published by the Massachusetts Medicaid Policy Institute (MMPI) and produced by the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center in partnership with the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute. MMPI will be publishing budget fact sheets at each stage in the FY 2012 budget process, as budget proposals move through the legislature.

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. A updated 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.

In 2005, the Foundation launched the Closing the Gap on Racial and Ethnic Health Care Disparities grantmaking area and secured the Disparities Solution Center at Massachusetts General Hospital as an evaluation partner. This report highlights stories of change from policy, organizational, provider, and client perspectives. Lessons from this report guided the Foundation in revising its funding strategy for the subsequent 2008–2011 grantmaking cycle.

According to this new report, implementation of national health reform will direct billions of new federal dollars into the Massachusetts health care system, expand public coverage to reach more of the state's residents, and has the potential to help the state reach its cost containment and quality of care goals. Written by the Center for Health Law and Economics at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, this report is the most comprehensive assessment to date of how the national reform law intersects with the Commonwealth's own health reforms.

This report is the latest in a series by the Urban Institute analyzing the impact of the Massachusetts health reform law. Findings show that despite the state's economic recession Massachusetts has maintained record low levels of uninsured and access to needed health care has improved. Additionally, disparities in coverage and care have been eliminated or narrowed. Solid public support for the health reform law continues. This report is based on the 2009 Massachusetts Health Reform Survey (MHRS), which has tracked the impact of the law annually since 2006.

This policy brief based on data from the 2009 Massachusetts Health Reform Survey shows that women have achieved significant gains in insurance coverage and in access and use of health care since health reform was implemented in Massachusetts. The gains were particularly strong for subgroups of women who had lower levels of coverage and poorer access prior to reform, including lower-income women, women of minority race/ethnicity, and women without dependent children.

This report, written in conjunction with senior staff at the Center for Health Law and Economics, examines the phenomenon of enrollees cycling on and off state health insurance programs, specifically MassHealth and Commonwealth Care.

MassHealth, the Massachusetts Medicaid program, could play a leading role in implementing dramatic changes to the health care payment system. This report outlines how so-called global payments could be used in MassHealth, which provides insurance coverage to roughly 1.2 million people in the state. Global payments have been recommended by both the Special Commission on Health System Payment and the Massachusetts Health Care Quality and Cost Council as a means of reigning in health care cost increases and improving care coordination.