As healthcare costs continue to climb and the slow U.S. economy pushes more people into medical assistance programs, states are increasing their use of care management strategies to help rein in costly Medicaid programs. A new analysis by Mark Farrah Associates (MFA), a leading data aggregator and publisher of health plan market data, confirms U.S. enrollment in managed Medicaid plans is on the rise. Total membership grew by 9.7% from June 2008 to September 2009, reaching more than 23 million.

The growth rate in Medicaid managed care plans is even stronger than the increase in total Medicaid enrollment, estimated recently at 7.5% from mid-2008 to mid-2009. Both statistics demonstrate a growing opportunity for health plans seeking to replace business lost in employer groups.

This Healthcare Business Strategy brief presents preliminary results of MFA’s Medicaid segment analysis project and discusses how states and health plans are approaching this market.

Click here to read the brief.

Publication: Free e‐mail newsletter intended to drive traffic to a website

Market: Anyone interested in the health insurance marketplace (primarily health
insurance companies, healthcare providers, pharmaceutical companies, and
healthcare market analysts)

Assignment: Edit a freelancer’s submission into a top‐level analysis of the private uninsured
healthcare market

Challenges: Refocus a historical approach to one of immediacy – show why we are doing this
article now. Focus on information of importance to the intended market. Cut
from about 1,400 words to about 750 words.

Approach: Cut to the chase – get the market information up top. Minimize the historical
discussion; focus on market segmentation.

Amidst the turmoil of healthcare reform, fortunately the quest for real solutions to control rising healthcare costs is still alive. Several industry leaders are gaining support for reviving an innovative model called the Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) that dates back to the 1960s. On the surface, the model appears to resemble the health maintenance organization (HMO) and is based on similar principles of coordinated care. On closer examination, it is clear that the PCMH is far less restrictive than traditional HMOs and could very well emerge to play a key role in the next generation of healthcare.

This email and online newsletter was published by Mark Farrah Associates on October 16, 2009.

Link to online newsletter

September promises to be a busy month for health insurance executives as they respond to requests for data and prepare testimony for a number of congressional committees working on healthcare reform.

Consumer-directed healthcare has been a hot topic in recent years, with most of the attention focused on high-deductible health plans (HDHPs) and health savings accounts (HSAs). Industry stakeholders are analyzing market data to gauge long-term sustainability and assess the role this innovative plan design will play in curtailing growth of the nation’s healthcare expenditures.

One recent paper from the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research concludes that “the brief history of HSA-qualified plans suggests that they are likely to continue to expand their market share significantly over time.” This Healthcare Business Strategy report looks at several recent papers and finds insights on the HDHP and HSA market to help health plans position themselves to capitalize on this likely expansion.

This article was published in Healthcare Business Strategy, an email newsletter, on April 30, 2009.

Link to article