News, August 9 News and Announcements

2010

Featured items Second State Health Access Program (SHAP) All-

Grantee Meeting Held in Arlington, VA
Julie Sonier Presents
at SCI Annual The second all-grantee meeting of the State Health Access Program
Meeting
(SHAP) was held on July 26-27, 2010, in Arlington, VA.
Lynn Blewett Representatives from all 13 grantee states were in attendance to
Discusses
discuss such topics as federal reform implementation; enrollment
Coordinated Care for
Minnesota's Poorest and retention; delivery system reform; and benefit design.
Adults
SHADAC’s Lynn Blewett and Elizabeth Lukanen attended the meeting

Small Area Health and led a workshop on data and evaluation, discussing benchmark
Insurance Estimates reporting and the type of baseline data needed to monitor health
Released
reform. As part of this workshop Elizabeth gave a presentation titled,
HHS Announces “SHAP Evaluations – Looking toward the Affordable Care Act.”
Exchange Grant
Program
Julie Sonier Presents at SCI Annual Meeting

SHADAC Deputy Director Julie Sonier gave a presentation titled,

Connect with “State-Level Estimates for Tracking Health Reform Impact:
SHADAC Opportunities and Challenges,” at the August 4th pre-meeting of the
Follow us on
2010 State Coverage Initiatives (SCI) Annual Meeting, held August
Twitter
Become a fan 4-6, 2010, in Minneapolis.
Read our blog
Lynn Blewett Discusses Coordinated Care for
Minnesota’s Poorest Adults

SHADAC Director Lynn Blewett was quoted in a July 29, 2010,

MinnPost article on a new approach to dealing with Minnesota's
medically vulnerable poor. The article describes a coordinated care
delivery system being tested by four Minnesota hospitals to provide
care for very low-income, single adults.

Lynn Blewett is quoted in the article about the timing of the

transition and the need for a better understanding of how best to
provide care for this vulnerable population, with an eye toward full
Medicaid coverage under the Affordable Care Act of 2010. "For this
population, there is nothing similar anywhere," said Dr. Blewett,
pointing out that the new system is unique both because of its
"medical home" approach and because of the insufficient funding
with which hospitals will be attempting to apply it.

MinnPost is a nonprofit journalism enterprise based in Minnesota.

View the MinnPost article.

2007 Small Area Estimates Released

The U.S. Census Bureau released the 2007 Small Area Health
Insurance Estimates (SAHIE) on July 27. The 2007 estimates show
percentages of people with and without coverage, by demographic
characteristic, for every state and county in the nation. The
estimates are based on models combining data from a variety of
sources, including the Current Population Survey, the 2000 Census,
the Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program, County Business
Patterns and administrative records. (These are currently the only
source of estimates of health insurance coverage status for all
counties.) Look for the estimates at the SAHIE web page. If you
have questions about the SAHIE, contact SHADAC for assistance.

Save the Date: Sharon Long to Discuss Using the

NHIS to Evaluate State Health Reform (Webinar)

SHARE’s next webinar will be on September 1, 2010, at 12:00 p.m.

(EST). The event will feature SHADAC Senior Economist Sharon
Long, who will present findings from her research using the National
Health Interview Survey (NHIS) to evaluate state health reform in
New York and Massachusetts. This event is free and open to the
public, but registration is required. Click here to register for the
webinar.

Save the Date: NASHP State Health Policy Conference

The 23rd Annual State Health Policy Conference for the National
Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP) will be held on October 4-
6, 2010, in New Orleans, Louisiana. Registration is now open, with
early bird rates available until September 10. Information is
available at the conference web site.

Publications

HIFA Reports Released

Two reports prepared by SHADAC researchers on the Health

Insurance Flexibility and Accountability (HIFA) demonstrations are
now available. "Second Phase of the HIFA Evaluation Study: Final
Report on the Two-State Enrollee Survey," and the companion
“Supplementary Report on the Two-State Enrollee Survey,” evaluate
the statistical significance and strength of the relationship between
the HIFA initiative and the number and rate of uninsured for health
care in states that implement HIFA waivers. This project involved a
survey of people enrolled in two state HIFA initiatives to gather
information specific to the enrollees. The reports are available upon
request to SHADAC but are not publicly posted while under review.

News from SHARE

SHARE Issue Brief: Impact of CHIP Expansions on

Coverage of Higher-Income Children

The SHARE research team led by José Escarce has released an issue
brief, “CHIP Expansions to Higher-Income Children in Three States:
Profiles of Eligibility and Insurance Coverage,” analyzing efforts to
expand CHIP coverage to higher-income children in Illinois,
Pennsylvania, and Washington. The authors use data from the 2002-
2009 Current Population Survey to evaluate the effect of expanded
CHIP eligibility in these states on overall health insurance coverage,
as well as on public coverage, among children with family incomes
between 200 and 400 percent of the federal poverty level.

The brief finds that Illinois, which implemented the broadest

eligibility expansion of the three states, saw the largest increase in
the percentage of higher-income children covered by public health
insurance. Illinois also shows the strongest evidence that the overall
decline in uninsurance among this group was consistent with
expansion effects.

RWJF Coverage Team News

Health Policy Orientation: Registration Now Open

Registration is now open for AcademyHealth’s annual Health Policy

Orientation, which will take place on October 25-28, 2010, in
Washington, D.C. This event gives participants an in-depth
understanding of the fundamentals of health policy development and
implementation at the federal level. The Orientation is geared
toward public officials, federal and state government employees,
private sector health care employees, health policy analysts, and
consultants. Space is limited to 50 participants. Visit
www.academyhealth.org/orientation for more information, or call
Anna LaFayette at 202.292.6739.

Health Reform News

Health and Human Services Announces $51 Million in

Grants for State Exchanges

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced on

July 29th the availability of $51 million in grants to assist states
launch the insurance exchanges mandated by the Patient Protection
and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). The grants are available in
amounts of up to $1 million per state and are intended to help states
conduct research and planning for the exchanges, which are
scheduled to become active in 2014. As states move forward with
the development of these exchanges, SHADAC is available to provide
technical assistance relating to data collection, analysis and
evaluation . Please contact us for assistance.
 News from the States

Federal Reform Will Save Maryland $829 Million over

10 Years: Hilltop Report

The Hilltop Institute at University of Maryland Baltimore County

released a report on July 26th for Maryland’s Health Care Reform
Coordinating Council (HCRCC) discussing the likely impacts of
federal health reform for the state of Maryland and laying out a
process and timeline for planning and key activities for reform
implementation. The report estimates that federal reform will save
the state $829 million over a 10-year span, with savings increasing
over time and peaking in FY 2019. Additionally, the report’s authors
estimate that the number of uninsured Marylanders will decrease 50
percent by 2017. View the full report.

SHADAC is funded by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to help states monitor rates of health insurance
coverage and to understand factors associated with uninsurance. For more information, visit SHADAC’s web
site, www.shadac.org.

SHARE is a National Program Office funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to fund, synthesize and
disseminate evaluations of state health reform. SHARE operates out of SHADAC. For more information, visit
SHARE's web site, www.statereformevaluation.org.

Copyright (C) 2010 State Health Access Data Assistance Center (SHADAC) All rights reserved.