The New Mexico Salud! Program: Assessment of Access to Care and Quality of Care for Children with Asthma and Adults with Diabetes
02/20/2009
The Hilltop Institute conducted an independent assessment of Salud!, New Mexico’s Medicaid managed care program, to provide an analysis of access to and quality of care for children with persistent asthma and adults with diabetes enrolled in the program. The assessment addressed three policy questions specific to the effectiveness of care delivered to people with chronic disease by the Salud! managed care organizations (MCOs): how does the performance of MCOs in Salud! compare to the performance of other MCOs in the western region of the United States?; have quality of and access to care for people with chronic conditions improved?; and have racial/ethnic and regional disparities in access and quality been reduced? Hilltop researchers found that utilization of primary care and preventive/ambulatory care services among enrollees with chronic conditions is high and that emergency room visits for the conditions studied decreased, demonstrating improvements in both access to and quality of care. To view the New Mexico press release on this report, click here.