Medicaid update
The Medicaid Council workgroup developing quality measures to use in reforming Medicaid’s payment system has held a couple of meetings – one very constructive, the first not so much. The first meeting was hastily called, dominated by SIM representatives, and contentious. However, the comforting bottom line from that meeting was that DSS will make the final decisions about how payment reform is structured for Medicaid. The second meeting was more friendly and productive, with better representation by Medicaid stakeholders and committee members who’ve worked over the years to improve the program. At the second meeting we worked through an impressive list of quality measures already being used by the program including typical quality measures, consumer and provider satisfaction surveys, and provider profiling. The committee explored what is now being measured, how that data is used, and is soliciting additions to fill gaps.