Engaging Michigan Communities in Deliberations about Medicaid Priorities (2014 - 2016)

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Funded by Health and Human Services, Department of-Agency for Health Care Research and Quality

Funding Years: 2014-2016

This grant aims to engage communities, particularly underserved communities, in informed deliberations about current and potential changes to Medicaid eligibility, coverage, and cost-sharing. Building on community-based research partnerships state-wide, we will convene a Steering Committee including community leaders, researchers, decision makers in private healthplans and the Michigan Department of Community Health (MDCH) and other stakeholders. We will adapt an innovative, award-winning web-based simulation exercise, CHAT (CHoosing All Together, usechat.org) in which individuals and groups make tradeoffs between competing needs for limited resources. Options in Medicaid-CHAT may include variations in covered benefits; out-of-pocket spending; population health and public health programs; rewards for healthy behaviors; and quality improvement activities. We will facilitate deliberations throughout the state, disproportionately sampling medically underserved communities and balancing locale (urban, suburban, rural and remote rural) and sociodemographic characteristics, ensuring inclusion of particular perspectives, e.g., those with chronic illness and those who are or will soon be eligible for Medicaid coverage or dually eligible.

We will prepare policy briefs describing the views of Michigan citizens about Medicaid eligibility, coverage, and cost-sharing and implications for policy. We aim to communicate Medicaid priorities of communities and the policy implications to state leaders, community leaders, insurers, and other stakeholders. We will examine the impact of public engagement on participants’ knowledge, attitudes, and priorities, and explore the impact on policy decisions.

We will also evaluate the effect of deliberations including a key element of deliberative procedures – representation.

PI(s): Susan Goold, MD, MHSA, MA

Co-I(s): A. Mark Fendrick, MD; Hyungjin Kim, PhD; Richard Lichtenstein, MD