Big Picture: What is the Latest Research on the Medicaid Program Saying – Including on Home and Community Based Services?

To help our members in their efforts to educate policymakers and stakeholders on the Medicaid program’s contributions to society and the challenges it faces, we share the following recent research:

• A study conducted by the Council on Quality and Leadership examining “the potential impact of the [Medicaid Home and Community Based Services (HCBS)] Settings Rule on people with IDD’s health and safety, particularly emergency room visits, abuse and neglect, and injuries.” The study found that “the more HCBS Settings Rule related outcomes people with IDD had present, the fewer injuries, incidents of abuse and neglect, and emergency room visits they had.”
• A report by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities finding that Medicaid beneficiaries do not have sufficient dental, vision and hearing benefits.
• A paper by the Commonwealth Fund examining “Medicaid’s evolving role in advancing the health of people involved in the justice system.”
• An article in Rural Mental Health examining “associations between state Medicaid telehealth policies and telebehavioral health (TBH) use among rural fee-for-service (FFS) beneficiaries with behavioral health needs and assessed relationships between beneficiary characteristics and TBH use.”