A new report prepared by the Geiger Gibson/RCHN Community Health Foundation Research Collaborative examines how health centers and state Medicaid programs in a number of Medicaid expansion states are working to reform Medicaid in order to promote efficiency and quality, and more actively integrate health centers into states’ broader payment reform efforts.
The authors review the key elements of Medicaid’s Federally Qualified Health Centers payment rules, describe the flexibility available under federal law that permits states and health centers to develop alternative payment methodologies, and provide in-depth profiles of the approaches underway in five Medicaid expansion states. Examining the experience in California, Colorado, Minnesota, New York, and Oregon, the authors find that health centers and Medicaid agencies are testing payment alternatives that link payment to health center performance. As the authors note, these alternative payment approaches enable health centers to test new strategies to address the needs of their patients, while allowing state Medicaid programs to align health center payment strategies more closely with broader payment reform efforts.
The report, “Community Health Centers and Medicaid Payment Reform: Emerging Lessons from Medicaid Expansion States,” is available at the following link.