Achieving Payment Reform for Children Through Medicaid and Stakeholder Collaboration

Authors: Suzanne C. Brundage, Chad Shearer 

The related press release can be found here.

Overhauling payments for children’s health care so that quality and outcomes are rewarded—rather than the quantity of care delivered—could have a profoundly positive impact on children’s health. But implementing such highly complex payment reform requires close collaboration between state Medicaid agencies and children’s organizations.

Two United Hospital Fund reports—Achieving Payment Reform for Children through Medicaid and Stakeholder Collaboration and its companion Guide for Action–examine this critical issue and outline rationales and specific steps that can help children’s health champions and state Medicaid programs work together to refocus health care payments. This can in turn improve the health and well-being of children. The reports also provide a framework that can form the basis for collaborative efforts between non-governmental organizations and public agencies.

The reports are based on interviews with experts on New York State’s own efforts to reform Medicaid payments, additional interviews with individuals in four other states, and UHF staff research. The publications are supported by a Cooperative Agreement awarded to ChangeLab Solutions and funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.