John Kasey

State Medicaid agencies play a pivotal role in ensuring access to behavioral healthcare, and statutes provide them with the authority and responsibility to act.

With a comprehensive picture of provider quality, cost, accessibility, and affiliations, payers and providers themselves can make informed decisions.

A review of seven state Medicaid programs shows wide variation in delivery, costs, oversight, and performance metrics.

We consider some alternative characteristics of a patient’s network that better define truly accessible, adequate, and equitable healthcare.

This paper outlines one category of health plan expenses—administrative costs—that are controllable because they’re driven by business decisions such as staffing, technology, and operational processes.

Alternatives to using Medicare and the wraparound plan Tricare-for-life could do more to manage and coordinate the healthcare experience.