Virginia's Medicaid Data Gets A Makeover

While compiling Medicaid managed care data can be daunting, it's an even greater challenge to present the numbers in a way that's accessible and useful. Virginia seems to have found success with a new, simplified reporting system. Last fall, the commonwealth's Department of Medical Assistance Services released the first annual Virginia Medicaid Managed Care Report, which takes data from many different sources and compiles it into a more succinct, easy-to-read format. Prior to this, "we had information, but people weren't reading it," says Cheryl Roberts, the department's deputy director of operations.

The report, used to analyze managed care providers that serve Medicaid patients, zeroes in on criteria such as health outcomes, financial solvency and numbers of complaints. Commonwealth administrators collect much of the report's information, but some of it is gathered by the managed care providers themselves. Virginia also employs the nonprofit Delmarva Foundation to collect data and to make sure the providers' information is accurate.

Last year, the department shared the report with other agencies, managed care providers, interested citizens and legislators. The warm reception it received from lawmakers helped the agency win funding victories in this year's budget.

Creating the report has also allowed the state to refine the criteria it uses to monitor managed care. Some data rarely changed, making it not worth the effort to gather. "It really taught us in Virginia about the collection of data," Roberts says. "What you really want to do is monitor ones that are going to show something--positive or negative."