May 7, 2012

As part of SHADAC’s technical assistance to support the State Health Reform Assistance Network (State Network), we hosted a gathering of several states on April 30 and May 1 in Minneapolis, MN.  The meeting, titled, "Developing an Evaluation Framework for the Affordable Care Act," was designed to discuss what states are doing to evaluate the impact of federal reform and how to translate those tools across states.

Regardless of the Supreme Court’s decision to be announced this month, states face a number of challenges to monitor and evaluate the impact of reform.  There is no "silver bullet" data source to manage this evaluation, and every state faces unique environments.  As such, states need to develop a framework that utilizes available data and resources to monitor their specific needs.  This may seem a daunting task but there are lessons to be shared among states.

In developing a framework, the key things to consider are:  defining the scope, identifying what specific measures to include, and then what levels of measurement.  

• Julie Sonier, SHADAC Deputy Director, discussed how and why to create a framework.
• Elizabeth Lukanen, SHADAC Senior Research Fellow, discussed how to operationalize the measures.
• Lynn Blewett, SHADAC Director, discussed the data collection and reporting requirements of the Affordable Care Act.
• Chris Trenholm, Senior Fellow at Mathematica, discussed measures to monitor enrollment and retention.

Representatives from several states also discussed what data their states are using and the successes and challenges they face.   These presentations and related resources are available at the State Networks’ web site.  SHADAC will continue to share these lessons with states as evaluation frameworks evolve.