Evaluation of the MediPASS Managed Care Demonstration Project Final Report

Elizabeth T. Momany
Peter C. Damiano
Theora Evans Dodd

September 1992

In 1990, the Health Care Financing Administration required an evaluation of the impact of introducing managed care into a Medicaid program as a condition for the waiver of certain Medicaid regulations. In September 1990, the Iowa Department of Human Services granted a contract to the University of Iowa to begin a two-year evaluation of the Medicaid Patient Access Service System (MediPASS), a managed care demonstration program. This initial evaluation of the MediPASS program examined MediPASS cost-effectiveness, MediPASS physician participation and satisfaction, and satisfaction of MediPASS-eligible persons. The results are summarized in this report.

The evaluation compiled five different databases, including complete Medicaid eligibility and claims files for 1990-1992, the results of extensive physician and program participant surveys, and data detailing both the maximum number of MediPASS recipients each participating physician was willing to accept and the number actually accepted.

The most daunting task associated with this evaluation was the management of a large Medicaid claims file on 60 data cartridges that encompasses two million claims for the two-year period. After many hours of processing, this data has been formatted for analysis and should provide useful information for future studies of the MediPASS and Medicaid programs.

The evaluation was conducted by a team of researchers at the University of Iowa Public Policy Center, School of Social Work and Department of Preventive and Community Dentistry. This interdisciplinary team reflects the renewed commitment of the University of Iowa to applied research that furthers the knowledge and policy-making abilities of decision makers in Iowa.

The first version of this report was printed in July 1992. Because the Department of Human Services received a large number of external requests for the report, this second version was printed. Revisions have been made to clarify programmatic issues that may be unfamiliar to those not involved with the MediPASS program. These revisions do not change the conclusions or recommendations of the original report.

58 pp., 17 figures, ibicomb binding