More than 2,300 health services researchers, providers, and key decision makers met in Boston to address the critical challenges confronting the nation’s health care delivery system at AcademyHealth’s 22nd Annual Research Meeting. Many themes of interest to states were covered over the three-day conference, including coverage and access; disparities; and management, organization, and financing.
Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) were also addressed in several panels. "How Are Medicaid & SCHIP Weathering the Fiscal Storm?" was a particularly important session that illustrated a variety of perspectives on the fiscal environment and how it has created ongoing pressure to cut these programs.
Teresa Coughlin, principal researcher on the Assessing the New Federalism project at The Urban Institute, provided a national overview of how Medicaid and SCHIP fared relative to other state priorities. Coughlin concluded that states failed to deal with the budget challenges of the past years with long-term solutions.
Jeanene Smith, deputy administrator of the Office for Oregon Health Policy and Research, discussed how Oregon dealt with the impact of some fairly significant cuts that were made to the Oregon Health Plan (OHP) and the research questions that resulted from those cuts. Deborah Florio from the State of Rhode Island described how research on RIteCare, the state’s Medicaid program, provided necessary evidence to help avert the type of cuts other states experienced.
To view the presentations on state-related issues and more, visit http://www.academyhealth.org/arm/index.htm.
