A collaboration between The Hilltop Institute and the Maryland Department of Health (the Department) is featured in a new informational bulletin released by the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), the Center for Medicaid and CHIP Services (CMCS), the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) titled “Opportunities to Improve HIV Testing, Prevention, and Care Delivery for Medicaid and CHIP Beneficiaries.”
The bulletin notes the following:
Maryland’s HIV Surveillance and Medicaid Programs partnered to establish a data sharing agreement, methodology to share and match data between HIV surveillance and Medicaid, calculate the viral suppression performance measure, and report the data to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid’s (CMS’s) Annual Adult Core Set Reporting. Maryland’s approach has become a model for other states pursuing collaborative relationships across HIV and Medicaid and using the viral suppression data to retain clients in care and achieving viral suppression.
Hilltop and the Department have represented Maryland as part of the multistate initiative funded by HRSA and CDC, “Building Capacity to Improve Collecting and Reporting Viral Suppression Data to the Medicaid Adult Core Set.” This Special Project of National Significance is facilitated by NASTAD (National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors), with technical support from partners AcademyHealth, University of California, San Francisco HEALTHQUAL, Georgetown University, and Killelea Consulting. This four-year project focuses on improving states’ capacity to report the HIV viral load suppression (HVL-AD) measure—a key health indicator for beneficiaries with HIV—to CMS as part of the Medicaid Adult Core Set.
Leadership and staff at Hilltop, Maryland Medicaid, and the Prevention and Health Promotion Administration worked closely to establish data sharing, match HIV surveillance and Medicaid data, produce and refine the quality measure, and present results to stakeholders. The team met frequently to discuss progress, attended learning sessions with other participating states, participated in webinars, and documented lessons learned. In addition to reporting the measure for the past three years, the team has disaggregated data to analyze disparities, presented data to the MCOs, and developed plans to use the data for quality improvement activities. Maryland is now acting as a peer mentor to states that are newly interested in reporting and contributing to a toolkit that will be disseminated at the conclusion of the project.
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