States should re-evaluate Medicaid managed care plans, report says

The Department of Health and Human Services has allocated stimulus funding for research projects that will attempt to determine the effectiveness of disability services, including rehabilitation services.

The department on Thursday disclosed an award of more than $6 million for research group Mathematica Policy Research Inc. to conduct the comparative effectiveness research for disability services. The two-year project will establish a “Center of Excellence in Research on Disability Services, Care Coordination and Integration,” according to the HHS press release. The new center will collaborate with the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Chronic Conditions Warehouse to increase the CCW’s ability to analyze information on people with disabilities and chronic conditions.

The new initiative will also assess Medicaid data, including state plan and waiver services supplied by specific states, to determine how disability services are used and defined, and to propose new ways to make those services more effective, according to the release.