IMI Blog

Andrea Bennett, PhD, MSW, Katrina Miller Parrish, MD, FAAFP, Citseko Staples Miller, Carter Steger, MPA, Nicole Truhe, MPA, Caroline Adams

Medicaid Covers Us is a public education project that highlights the role of the Medicaid program in the lives of individuals, families, and communities, their interactions with the nation’s health care systems, and how it impacts state/local economies. The project focuses on sharing stories from the perspective of individuals and families, clinicians, payers, business and community leaders, and others in the Medicaid ecosystem to articulate the value of the program.

Key Findings from IMI’s 2020 Annual Medicaid MCO Survey: SDOH, Women’s Health, & Child Health

On December 8, 2020, the Institute for Medicaid Innovation (IMI) hosted a virtual event to support the release of its third annual Medicaid managed care organization (MCO) survey report, Medicaid Access and Coverage in 2019.

Caroline E. Adams

The IMI team is in the process of planning the revision of the annual Medicaid MCO survey tool. We anticipate a complete overhaul of the survey to ensure that our questions remain relevant and timely in collecting meaningful data about the Medicaid program. The survey tool revision process will begin in early 2021.

Lydia Tonkonow

This year, in celebration of the World Health Organization’s Year of the Nurse and Midwife, the Institute for Medicaid Innovation (IMI) partnered with Medicaid health plans across the country to create a compendium that highlights the critical work done by these professionals in the Medicaid space.

Noelle Serino

The social determinants of health are a priority for organizations across the health, business, and nonprofit sectors. Healthy People 2030, powered by the U.S Department of Health and Human Services and the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, divides the social determinants of health into five categories: (1) economic stability, (2) education access and quality, (3) health care access and quality, (4) neighborhood and built environment, and (5) social and community context. A 2018 report found that 68% of Americans struggled with at least one of these determinants and 52% faced moderate to high risk of at least one of these determinants.

Chloe Bakst, Ann Giazzoni, MSW, LCSW, MBA, Nevena Minor, MPP, & Yavar Moghimi, MD

The rise of COVID-19 in the United States has increased the need for behavioral health services while necessitating a radical change in how these services are delivered. Behavioral health, which includes mental health and substance use disorders, is a major focus for the Medicaid program, with many Medicaid health plans providing behavioral health coverage as part of their comprehensive benefits packages. In 2015, Medicaid covered 21 percent of adults with mental illness, 26 percent of adults with serious mental illness (SMI), and 17 percent of adults with substance use disorder (SUD), according to a Kaiser Family Foundation analysis.

Caroline E. Adams & Clare C. Brown, PhD, MPH

IMI’s latest research article, released ahead-of-print in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology, examines risk of severe maternal morbidity in association with chronic conditions and maternal race/ethnicity. An analysis was performed using a nationally representative sample of delivery hospitalizations.

Chloe Bakst In the spring of 2020, the Institute for Medicaid Innovation (IMI) released a new report, Community-Based Maternal Support Services: The Role of Doulas and Community Health Workers in Medicaid. This report was part of a suite of resources IMI produced related to high-value,…

Chloe Bakst

Following the spring release of the Institute for Medicaid’s (IMI) report, Improving Maternal Health Access, Coverage, and Outcomes in Medicaid, the IMI team heard from an array of Medicaid stakeholders who were interested in taking the information about high-value, evidence-based maternal models of care detailed in the report and putting it into action.

Audrey McClurg, Noelle Serino, & Sara Villanueva

IMI’s most downloaded resource on the website is its Medicaid state fact sheets, offering comprehensive information on topics such as eligibility, waivers, programmatic offerings, and covered benefits for each state in the U.S., D.C., and Puerto Rico.