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Honesty As Good Policy: Evaluating Maryland's Medicaid Managed Care Program
Author(s) -
CHANG DEBBIE I.,
BURTON ALICE,
O'BRIEN JOHN,
HURLEY ROBERT E.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
the milbank quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.563
H-Index - 101
eISSN - 1468-0009
pISSN - 0887-378X
DOI - 10.1111/1468-0009.t01-1-00061
Subject(s) - honesty , medicaid , state (computer science) , business , balance (ability) , task (project management) , managed care , medicaid managed care , scale (ratio) , public relations , health care , public administration , political science , medicine , economics , computer science , management , law , physics , algorithm , quantum mechanics , physical medicine and rehabilitation
Throughout the 1990s, the states launched many large‐scale innovations in health care financing and delivery. The demands associated with designing, implementing, and managing such initiatives compete for those resources needed to evaluate the impact of the innovations. But without a good faith effort to launch a credible evaluation, innovative and controversial programs may not be able to be sustained. Striking a balance between advocating for change and honestly determining how well the desired changes have been achieved is a delicate and daunting task, and state policymakers often do not spend much time evaluating their efforts, even though this may be critical to the success of their programs. This article describes one state's assessment of a statewide, prepaid, Medicaid managed care program. We look at the evaluation as both an exercise in policy analysis and an indication of the response to various constituencies' concerns. Three of us either worked for the state or contracted with the state to help evaluate the program.