Davern, M., L. A. Blewett, B. Bershadsky, K. T. Call, and T. Rockwood. 2003. “State Variation in SCHIP Allocations: How Much Is There, What Are Its Sources, and Can It Be Reduced?” Inquiry 40 (2): 184-187.

Allocations for the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) varied 22% per state between 1999 and 2002. The funding fluctuations present significant problems for states as they develop budget priorities under difficult fiscal conditions. We examine sources of the variation in state allocations during the first four years of SCHIP, focusing on the Current Population Survey's "child component" of the allocation formula. We consider the trade-offs in using alternative estimates from the American Community Survey and model-based estimation. Obtaining reliable estimates of need for SCHIP allocations is critical for states dependent on federal support for insurance programs.

Blewett, L. A., G. Davidson, M. Brown, and R. Maude-Griffin. 2003. “Hospital Provision of Uncompensated Care and Public Program Enrollment.” Medical Care Research and Review 60 (4): 509-527.

Hospital provision of uncompensated care is partly a function of insurance coverage of state populations. As states expand insurance coverage options and reduce the number of uninsured, hospital provision of uncompensated care should also decrease. Controlling for hospital characteristics and market factors, the authors estimate that increases in MinnesotaCare (a state-subsidized health insurance program for the working poor) enrollment resulted in a 5-year cumulative savings of $58.6 million in hospital uncompensated care costs. Efforts to evaluate access expansions should take into account the costs of the program and the savings associated with reductions in hospital uncompensated care.

Beebe, T.J., P. A. Harrison, J. A. McRae, and S. E. Asche. 2003. “Evaluating Behavioral Health Services in Minnesota's Medicaid Population Using the Experience of Care and Health Outcomes (ECHO tm) Survey.” Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved 14 (4): 608-621.

Welch, W. P., B. Rudolph, L. A. Blewett, S. Parente, C. Brach, D. Love, and R. Harmon. 2006. “Management Tools in Medicaid and State Children’s Health Insurance Program SCHIP.” Journal of Ambulatory Care Management 29(4): 272-282.

Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program need analytic tools to manage their programs. Drawing upon extensive discussions with experts in states, this article describes the state of the art in tool use, making several observations: (1) Several states have linked Medicaid/State Children's Health Insurance Program administrative data to other data (eg, birth and death records) to measure access to care. (2) Several states use managed care encounter data to set payment rates. (3) The analysis of pharmacy claims data appears widespread. The article also describes "lessons learned" regarding building capacity and improving data to support the implementation of management tools.

Kincheloe, J., E. R. Brown, J. Frates, K. T. Call, W. Yen, and J. Watkins. 2006. “Can We Trust Population Surveys to Count Medicaid Enrollees and the Uninsured?” Health Affairs 25(4): 1163-1167.

Health foundations, such as the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), make multimillion-dollar investments in programs to expand insurance coverage. These efforts are driven largely by estimates of the number of uninsured people derived from population surveys, which might overestimate the number of uninsured people if they under-count people enrolled in Medicaid. This paper reports the results of the RWJF-funded California Medicaid Undercount Experiment (CMUE) to estimate the extent of underreporting of Medicaid in the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS) and its effect on estimates of uninsurance. Although some over- and underreporting occurs, overall CHIS Medicaid estimates match administrative counts for adults.