The proportion of low-income nonelderly adults covered by Medicaid varies widely by state. We sought to determine whether broader state Medicaid coverage, defined as the proportion of each state's low-income nonelderly adult population covered by Medicaid, associates with lower state-level incidence of ESRD and greater access to care. The main outcomes were incidence of ESRD and five indicators...

OBJECTIVES The Hyde Amendment prohibits federal Medicaid funding for abortion except when a woman is seeking an abortion for a pregnancy that is the result of rape or incest, or that threatens her life. We investigated how Medicaid staff in 17 states responded to inquiries about coverage for abortion in the few circumstances that qualify for federal Medicaid funding. METHODS Using a mystery c...

Introduction Smoking is the number one preventable cause of death in the United States. Under the Affordable Care Act, Kansas Medicaid covers all seven FDA-approved smoking cessation therapies. However, it is estimated only 3% of Kansas Medicaid smokers use treatment compared to the national estimate of 10%. The objective is to determine systemic barriers in place that prevent optimal utilizati...

The MAX Medicaid policy issue brief series highlights the essential role MAX data can play in analyzing the Medicaid program. MAX is a set of annual, person-level data files on Medicaid eligibility, service utilization, and payments that are derived from state reporting of Medicaid eligibility and claims data into the Medicaid Statistical Information System (MSIS). MAX is an enhanced, researchf...

All Medicaid-enrolled children are eligible to receive dental care through the Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic and Treatment Program (EPSDT). As part of an evaluation of the effectiveness of the EPSDT program in Iowa, Medicaid enrollment and claims files from fiscal year (FY) 1994 were used to evaluate the utilization of dental services by Medicaid-enrolled children younger than age 6 ...

Medicaid enrollees have nearly twice the smoking rates (37%) of the general adult population (21%), and smoking-related medical costs are responsible for 11% of Medicaid expenditures. In 2008, the Public Health Service released clinical practice guidelines recommending comprehensive coverage of effective tobacco-dependence medications and counseling by health insurers. Healthy People 2010 estab...

From 1991 to 2009, the fraction of Medicaid recipients enrolled in HMOs and other forms of Medicaid managed care (MMC) increased from 11 percent to 71 percent. This increase was largely driven by state and local mandates that required most Medicaid recipients to enroll in an MMC plan. Theoretically, it is ambiguous whether the shift from fee-for-service into managed care would lead to an increa...

This article explores the impact on Medicaid costs of new AIDS treatments and other technology advances. Available data on total projected Medicaid expenditures and actual expenditures for antiretroviral drugs are presented. The article further addresses Medicaid State agencies' efforts to assure that Medicaid-eligible persons with AIDS receive quality care, and reviews recent studies on utiliz...

This article is a comparison of the characteristics of hospitals serving the general population and Medicaid recipients in California and Michigan, using data from Medicaid uniform claims files and the American Hospital Association Annual Survey for 1984. A greater concentration of discharges in a small number of "high Medicaid volume" urban and rural hospitals in each State was observed for Me...

BACKGROUND The intent of adopting managed care plans is to improve access to health care services while containing costs. To date, there have been a number of studies that examine the relationship between managed care and access to health care. However, the results from previous studies have been inconsistent. Specifically, previous studies did not demonstrate a clear benefit of Medicaid manage...