Hilltop Presents on Evaluation of New Mexico’s State Coverage Insurance Program at AcademyHealth Annual Research Meeting

Anna S. Sommers, PhD, a senior research analyst at The Hilltop Institute, participated on two panels at the AcademyHealth Annual Research meeting in Chicago, Illinois. The first panel occurred at the AcademyHealth State Health Research and Policy Interest Group Meeting, part of the pre-conference proceedings, on June 27 and was entitled Early Results from the State Health Access Reform (SHARE) Program. The second panel, entitled The Lab Reports: Evaluating States’ Actions to Expand Access & Coverage, occurred at the AcademyHealth Annual Research Meeting (ARM) on June 30. At both sessions, Sommers presented the findings from the Hilltop evaluation of small group employer participation in the New Mexico State Coverage Insurance (SCI) program. Sommers and her research team studied the factors that influence small employers’ decisions to participate in SCI, and found policy implications for both states and for federal reform. Policy implications for states are that there is a significant tradeoff between accessing federal dollars and employer recruitment; that some states use standards more transparent to employers; and that reaching the smallest firms may require different strategies. Implications for federal reform are that de-linking federal dollars from Medicaid/CHIP could allow use of more transparent and/or simplified eligibility standards; and that the pay-or-play federal mandate could assist states in engaging larger employers. The evaluation is partially funded by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation State Health Access Reform (SHARE) Program. To view the presentation, Click here. To view the handout materials, Click here.

June 28, 2009