Managing Medicaid Managed Care

Over the last dozen years, states have dramatically increased the enrollment of Medicaid patients in managed care programs. As initially envisioned, managed care had broad political appeal to both conservatives because of its potential to reduce the growth in escalating Medicaid expenditures, and to liberals because of its promise to improve the quality of care and increase the accountability of the health care system for the care it provides to Iow income families and children.Based on intensive field research in ten states, this book examines state successes and failures in "managing" the complex and demanding, if promising, method of organizing and financing health care for Medicaid patients. It examines state performance in operating managed care programs across a wide spectrum of management issues, ranging from contracting with managed care plans to performance measurement. The contributors also indicate the political and market conditions under which states have been more or less successful in realizing managed care's potential advantages in providing health care for Iow income populations.