On September 26-28, the Coverage Institute, a new technical assistance project funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, began with an intensive two-and-a-half day meeting where state teams met to discuss major issues of health care reform. Each state brought a team of eight to 12 high-level state policymakers and, in some cares, some private sector stakeholders. The meeting provided each team with an opportunity to meet on their own to discuss health care reforms being considered in their respective states.
In addition, 15 expert faculty were on hand to provide one-on-one technical assistance to the states. The expert faculty came from think tanks, academia, consulting firms, and state agencies currently implementing innovative reform strategies. Areas of expertise included state reform evaluation, data collection and analysis, reinsurance, crowd-out, tax credits, insurance market reforms, health care reform modeling, ERISA, Medicaid and SCHIP program design and financing, purchasing pools and mechanisms, health information technology, chronic care health system reform, rural health care delivery and financing, and payment reform.
In addition to the one-on-one technical assistance from faculty, states had the opportunity to meet with experts in small groups that included only three or four state teams in order to encourage discussion among states on a variety of broader issues related to health care reform including strategic planning and options development, consensus building, and communications strategies.
The 14 states participating in the Coverage Institute (Arkansas, Colorado, Indiana, Kansas, Maryland, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, and Wisconsin) are working toward substantial or comprehensive health reform.
For more information about the kick-off meeting, visit the SCI Web site.
