A series of public discussions sponsored by the Brown School and the Center for Health Economics and Policy has resulted in a white paper that recommends major changes in Missouri’s Medicaid system to enhance access to high-quality care while containing rising costs. Recommendations for Missouri Medicaid Transformation is based on input by stakeholders who gathered in person, and later virtually through the Clark-Fox Policy Institute in workshops led by the Center, a part of the Institute for Public Health.
The recommendations include:
- Expanding Primary Healthcare Homes to include more Medicaid enrollees.
- Replacing fee-for-service payments to hospitals with global budgets.
- Moving more Medicaid enrollees into managed care organizations.
- Streamlining eligibility, funding and communication across programs.
“This work represents our Center’s fifth installation in a string of events to steer a discussion of how Missouri’s health care system can be transformed to enhance access to high quality care, improve outcomes, while also helping contain costs,” said Timothy McBride, co-director of the Center and Bernard Becker Professor at the Brown School. “It can give the state access to a range of voices on these crucial issues.” The project was led by Abigail Barker, research assistant professor at the Brown School; and Lauren Kempton, an MSW/MPH student at the Brown School and lead author of the report.
The workshops convened a diverse group of individuals and organizations, including health-care providers, urban and rural hospitals, long-term care facilities, researchers and policymakers.
“Bringing together stakeholders to craft policy solutions to our knottiest social problems is what the Clark-Fox Policy Institute is all about,” said Atia Thurman, associate director of the institute. “Our discussions reflected a wide range of opinions, but all of the participants shared a common goal: Making our Medicaid system work better for the people who need it the most.”