Medicaid waiver program helped public hospitals improve care to California ’s most needy

A five-year Medicaid waiver program that infused billions of dollars into public hospitals prompted significant improvements in health care to California ’s neediest population — the poor and uninsured, according to an extensiveevaluation by the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.Seventeen designated public hospitals participated in the $3.3 billion “pay-for-performance” experiment, including five University of California hospital systems and 12 county‐owned-and‐operated hospital systems. Collectively, these facilities serve more than 2 million patients every year, including most of the state’s Medi-Cal patients. Medi-Cal is Californi a’s version of Medicaid.Participating hospitals saw increased rates of mammogram screenings, flu vaccinations, child weight screenings, and tobacco cessation, according to the evaluation. A higher proportion of patients received timely appointments and controlled their cholesterol and blood glucose levels in participating hospitals compared to patients at hospitals that did not participate in the program.Among people with HIV, the rate of mental health screenings increased dramatically, from 3 percent to 67 percent, according to the evaluation. There was also a dramatic increase in the rate of Hepatitis B vaccinations, which rose from 11 percent to 58 percent.California is the first of nine states in the program to report on participating hospitals ’ efforts to transform their systems and improve quality of care for low-inc...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news