Federal policymakers say the scorecard will usher in a new era of accountability by publishing state and federal Medicaid and CHIP outcomes.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on Monday released its first ever Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program Scorecard.
- CMS Administrator Seema Verma, in a media release, called the scorecard a central component in the modernization of Medicaid and CHIP through greater transparency and accountability for program outcomes.
- "Despite providing health coverage to more than 75 million Americans at a taxpayer cost of more than $558 billion a year, we have lacked transparency in the performance and outcomes of this critical program," Verma said.
- "The scorecard will be used to track and display progress being made throughout and across the Medicaid and CHIP programs, so others can learn from the successes of high performing states. By using meaningful data and fostering transparency, we will see the development of best practices that lead to positive health outcomes for our most vulnerable populations," Verma said.
- The first version of the Scorecard includes measures voluntarily reported by states, and federally reported measures in three areas: state health system performance; state administrative accountability; and federal administrative accountability.
- The metrics in the first Scorecard include well child visits, mental health conditions, children's preventive dental services, and other chronic health conditions.
- The Scorecard is the first time that CMS is publishing state and federal administrative performance metrics, such as state/federal timeliness of managed care capitation rate reviews, time from submission to approval for Section 1115 demonstrations, and state/federal state plan amendment processing times.
John Commins is a content specialist and online news editor for HealthLeaders, a Simplify Compliance brand.