Cigarette smoking is one of the greatest drivers of adverse health outcomes and costs for state Medicaid programs. By investing in comprehensive tobacco cessation programs, states have successfully reduced smoking rates and health care costs, and have improved health outcomes. Tobacco treatment is...

Medicaid plays a key role in the prevention of disease by facilitating access to vaccines. All Medicaid-eligible children under the age of 21 are entitled to receive all vaccines recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice (ACIP). In response to a measles epidemic in...

The Medicare-Medicaid Data Integration (MMDI) contractor has released two new opioid use cases that are available on the State Data Resource Center (SDRC) website. MMDI helps demonstration states (MMCO’s Financial Alignment Initiative and CMCS’ Innovation Accelerator Program) with in depth, state-centered technical assistance. This includes tools to successfully understand and analyze Medicare data as well as integrating those data with Medicaid and other data on the state’s IT platform.

This week, we are hosting the first in a series of in-person meetings across the country to begin the conversation about our Medicaid Innovation Accelerator Program (IAP), a new initiative that we are launching in partnership with the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. We launched...

We had a great in-person meeting on Monday in Baltimore with over 25 representatives from states joining us in the morning and an equal number of consumer advocates and providers for the afternoon session. We were thrilled with the thoughtful discussion and helpful feedback. As we hoped, these...

We are excited to confirm that the first IAP focus area will address strategies to improve states substance use disorder (SUD) treatment systems. SUD is a serious and growing problem in the U.S., but evidence is also strong for the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of treatment. Based on...

We were so pleased with the turnout and lively discussion at our series of in-person meetings where states and stakeholders shared their feedback on our new Medicaid Innovation Accelerator Program. It was great to see so many state colleagues in person and we were pleased with the high level of...

Thank you to everyone who participated in the IAP Substance Use Disorder (SUD) webinar on November 7th. The goal of the webinar was to provide states with details on the upcoming High-Intensity Learning Collaborative as well as additional opportunities to participate in the SUD initiative. The...

The IAP has gotten off to an enthusiastic start. The message from states, supporting Substance Use Disorders (SUD) as the first program area, was loud and clear. We received letters of interest from 26 states eager to participate. We couldn’t be more pleased and have engaged each of these 26...

The three program priority areas that we announced at the end of 2014, in addition to substance use disorder, are taking root. IAP provides states with targeted program support, tools, and technical resources for: (1) Medicaid beneficiaries with complex needs and high costs; (2) community...