Contractor and Cooperator Reports No. (CCR-33) 71 pp
An Assessment of the Impact of Medicaid Managed Care on WIC Program Coordination With Primary Care Services
Coordination between the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) and Medicaid has been an important component to ensuring access to primary care services for WIC clients. This study examines how increased use of managed care in the Medicaid program has affected WIC program coordination efforts. According to the study sample, 72 percent of State Medicaid agencies report that Managed Care Organizations (MCOs) are required to inform their members about WIC. About 43 percent of State WIC agencies sampled in the study have a formal agreement with a State Medicaid agency, generally revolving around data shar-ing, referrals, and provision of special metabolic infant formulas. The agreements often lack specific details on how services should be coordinated, however. Some local WIC agencies and MCOs have implemented innovative approaches to coordination. These approaches include Medicaid staff at WIC clinics to help clients with enrollment, sharing information to promote targeted outreach efforts, helping clients identify providers and resources, and MCOs paying transportation costs of WIC clients to attend WIC appointments.
This study was conducted by Health Systems Research, Inc., under a cooperative research contract with USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) Food and Nutrition Assistance Research Program (FANRP): contract number 43-3AEM-2-80103 (ERS project representative: T. Alexander Majchrowicz). The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of ERS or USDA.
Keywords: Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, WIC, Medicaid, managed care organizations, primary care services, nutrition, food assistance, Food Assistance and Nutrition Research Program, FANRP
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