Hilltop made several presentations at the 65th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America that took place November 14-18, 2012, in San Diego. On November 14, Hilltop presented a symposium session titled Medicare-Medicaid Enrollees: An Examination of New Maryland Enrollees and Pathways to Coverage. The purpose of the session was to discuss the findings of the research Hilltop conducted to examine the experience of Maryland Medicare-Medicaid enrollees before their eligibility for both programs. The research identified and cataloged significant differences between persons who first enroll in Medicaid and then in Medicare and those who first enroll in Medicare and then in Medicaid. In the session, Hilltop researchers shared the results of their analyses and findings from a background paper about pathways to eligibility for both programs. Hilltop Director of Long-Term Services and Supports Policy and Research Donna Folkemer, MA, moderated the session. Cynthia Woodcock, MBA, formerly of Hilltop and now Practice Area Lead, Long-Term Care, Aging, and Disability at IMPAQ International, discussed the literature review that described the various pathways to eligibility, presented examples of programs aimed at delaying functional decline and/or poverty, and reviewed enrollment barriers faced by individuals who need both Medicare and Medicaid coverage. Hilltop Policy Analyst Aaron Tripp, MSW, discussed the study on demographic and programmatic characteristics, which compared and contrasted enrollees in both programs with particular attention to identifying differences among various groups. Hilltop Director of Special Studies Ian Stockwell, MA, discussed the study on prior Medicare and Medicaid resource use, which examined chronic disease patterns and prior health care expenditures of persons who began to receive coverage in 2008 from both Medicare and Medicaid. Chuck Milligan, JD, MPH, Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Deputy Secretary of Health Care Financing, was the discussant for the session.
This document provides a brief summary of the services The Hilltop Institute provided to the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH) under the 2012 Memorandum of Understanding between Hilltop and DHMH.To read the full report, click here.
This report describes the services The Hilltop Institute provided to the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH) under the 2012 Memorandum of Understanding between Hilltop and DHMH. The report covers state fiscal year 2012 (July 1, 2011, through June 30, 2012). Hilltop’s interdisciplinary staff provided a wide range of services, including: Medicaid program development and policy analysis; HealthChoice program support, evaluation, and financial analysis; long-term services and supports program development, policy analysis, and financial analytics; and data management and web-accessible database development.
Hilltop Senior Policy Analyst Laura Spicer, MA, gave a presentation at the National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP) 25th Annual State Health Policy Conference held October 15-17, 2012, in Baltimore. In the presentation, Impact of Medicaid Expansion on a State’s Economy: The Hilltop Health Care Reform Simulation Model, Spicer gave an overview of the Hilltop Health Care Reform Simulation Model, a financial modeling tool developed by Hilltop Director of Economic Analysis Hamid Fakraei, PhD, that projects the costs and savings to states as they implement the provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Spicer discussed the economic impacts of the ACA and how the model was used in Maryland to isolate the impact of Medicaid Expansion and inform the decision by Maryland policymakers to expand Medicaid in 2015.
This issue brief highlights key findings from Hilltop’s study that evaluated the Kids First outreach initiative. The overarching goal of the study was to evaluate the implementation of Kids First and how well the state achieved its goal of identifying and enrolling uninsured children who are eligible for Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) in order to glean lessons for not only Maryland, but also other states. This brief describes the factors that facilitated Kids First, as well as the key challenges that Maryland faced as it implemented the initiative.
Senior Policy Analyst Laura A. Spicer, MA, gave this presentation at a Continuity of Care Advisory Committee Meeting. The Committee was appointed by the Board of Trustees in June of 2012 to begin addressing the transition between Medicaid, the state-based exchange, and the commercial market.
This is the fifth issue brief in a series resleased by Hilltop’s Hospital Community Benefit Program. It discusses hospital community building activities and their importance in addressing the root causes of poor health and disability. It explores hospitals’ community benefit activities that go beyond the provision of health care services to focus on “upstream” social, economic, and environmental factors—education, employment, income, housing, community design, family and social support, community safety, and the environment—that are major contributors to community health. IRS Form 990, Schedule H is the vehicle hospitals use to report these activities.The other issue briefs in the Hospital Community Benefits after the ACA series are The Emerging Federal Framework, Building on State Experience, Partnerships for Community Health Improvement, and Schedule H and Hospital Community Benefit—Opportunities and Challenges for the States.
This issue brief, the fourth in a series published by Hilltop’s Hospital Community Benefit Program, is a collaboration between Kevin Barnett, DrPH, MCP, Senior Investigator at the Public Health Institute, and Martha Somerville, JD, MPH, Hilltop’s Hospital Community Benefit Program Director. It discusses key federal community benefit reporting requirements developed by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as Form 990, Schedule H and explores the opportunities and challenges these present to state officials and policymakers, both as a reporting framework and as an informational resource.The other issue briefs in the Hospital Community Benefits after the ACA series are The Emerging Federal Framework, Building on State Experience, Partnerships for Community Health Improvement, and Community Building and the Root Causes of Poor Health.
Hilltop Interim Executive Director Michael A. Nolin, MA, made a presentation at the American Public Health Association’s midyear meeting on June 27, 2012, in Charlotte, North Carolina. The session, titled All in This Together – Public Health and Community Benefit, addressed the requirement for nonprofit hospitals to demonstrate their commitment to community health by conducting a community health needs assessment (CHNA) along with a strategy to address the identified needs to support their nonprofit tax status. In his presentation, Nolin gave an overview of the origins of the community benefit standard and discussed the standard in both a federal and state context; discussed the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) reporting requirements for nonprofit hospitals; discussed the CHNA requirements under the Affordable Care Act (ACA); and addressed state policy factors related to CHNAs. Finally, Nolin gave examples of how hospital associations might be responding to these requirements.
Hilltop Interim Executive Director Michael A. Nolin, MA, was a panelist in a special session at the AcademyHealth Annual Research Meeting on June 24, 2012, in Orlando, Florida. This special session, <i>Building Research Collaborations with State Health Policymakers</i>, used the states of California and Maryland as examples to address the benefits and challenges of state/university partnerships, as well as ways to structure them. Nolin discussed Hilltop’s nationally recognized eighteen-year partnership with the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, the catalyst for the development of the partnership, what it looks like today, its structure, and the benefits and challenges of such state/university partnerships.