Evaluation of the MediPASS Managed Care Demonstration Project

Second Waiver Period
Final Report

September 1994
and
Cost-Effectiveness Analysis Supplement

December 1995

Elizabeth T. Momany
Peter C. Damiano

In 1990, the Iowa Department of Human Services introduced a Medicaid managed care demonstration project called the Medicaid Patient Access Service System (MediPASS). The MediPASS program, originally implemented in seven counties (Black Hawk, Jackson, Linn, Muscatine, Polk, Pottawattamie, and Scott), was designed to reduce costs while maintaining access to care and quality of care. To receive a waiver to implement the MediPASS demonstration project from the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), the Iowa Department of Human Services was required to contract for an independent evaluation of the MediPASS program. The first evaluation of the cost-effectiveness, as well as the effect on access and quality was completed in September 1992.

This report presents the results of the evaluation of the second waiver period for the MediPASS program (fiscal years 1993 and 1994). Although the MediPASS program has recently expanded and continues to expand throughout the state, this report pertains primarily to the original seven counties because the evaluation for this waiver period began prior to most of the expansion.

In this report, we focus on the cost-effectiveness of the program by comparing the cost experiences of Medicaid recipients in the seven original MediPASS counties with the Medicaid experiences of a similar group of Iowa counties not participating in the MediPASS program. We surveyed both physicians and recipients in Iowa to evaluate the effect of the MediPASS program on recipients' access to care and quality of care. While not exhaustive, these perspectives provide an overview of the impact of the MediPASS program on cost, quality and access.

Research for this evaluation was conducted at the University of Iowa Public Policy Center. Funding was provided by the Iowa Department of Human Services and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Health Care Financing Administration.

Final Report, 49 pp., 6 figures, perfect bound
Cost-Effectiveness Analysis Supplement, 34 pp., saddle stitched