June 30, 2010. SHARE grantee Genevieve Kenney, with co-authors Jennifer Pelletier and Julia Costich, has released two new in-depth reports detailing the Medicaid policy changes in Idaho and Kentucky that were implemented under authority granted by the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (DRA). This authority allowed Idaho and Kentucky greater flexibility in benefit design, cost-sharing, care coordination, health promotion, and chronic disease management.
In the SHARE-sponsored reports, the authors evaluate the impacts of Idaho and Kentucky's Medicaid policy changes, along with the political, regulatory, and institutional environments that influenced these impacts. The authors describe numerous successes with the Medicaid modifications in the two states. They make the case, however, that further Medicaid changes are needed, while noting that such changes will likely be heavily dependent on how these states weather the current economic downturn and on the policy changes associated with federal health reform efforts.