Flawed evaluation of Medicaid demonstrations limits policy impact, GAO says

Healthcare DIVE February 23, 2018
Meg Bryant

Dive Brief:

• A new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report finds major shortcomings in state evaluations of Medicaid demonstration projects,limiting their ability to inform policy decisions.
• The watchdog agency looked at demonstrations in Arizona, Arkansas and Massachusetts and found significant limitations in each — from lack of information on quality measures to failure to discuss rationales and conclusions.
• CMS-led evaluations have also been wanting due to data challenges that have hampered progress and limited the scope of those evaluations, according to GAO.

Dive Insight:

States are required to evaluate their demonstrations, which accounted for a third of the more than $300 billion in federal Medicaid dollars in 2015. CMS can also conduct its own reviews. The demonstrations allow new...

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