Visits to Primary Care and Emergency Department Reliance for Foster Youth: Impact of Medicaid Managed Care

State-Level Managed Care Penetration in Medicaid and Rates of Preventive Care Visits for Children

OBJECTIVE

To examine time trends in receipt of Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic, and Treatment (EPSDT) services in serial cohorts of Medicaid beneficiaries <21 years, as Medicaid managed care (MMC) was adopted by states.

METHODS

Using annual state-level data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, we performed national analyses of Medicaid beneficiaries <21 years from 2000 to 2017. We used generalized linear models to assess the relationship between MMC enrollment and EPSDT encounters, accounting for repeated measures, first at the national level overall and then specifying random effects at the state level.

RESULTS

From 2000 to 2017, there was an increase at the national level in Medicaid beneficiaries <21 years enrolled in MMC, from 65% to 94%. At the national level, for every additional 100 enrollees in MMC there was an associated increase of 36 beneficiaries with an EPSDT visit (95% confidence interval: 19-53; P < .001). When accounting for state-level variation, for every additional 100 enrollees in MMC, there was an increase of 6 beneficiaries with an EPSDT visit (95% confidence interval: 2-10; P = .003). Examining the association between MMC penetration and EPSDT participation within each state, including the 50 states and Washington DC, there were 17 states with a significant positive association between MMC ratio and EPSDT participation, and 6 states with a significant negative association.

CONCLUSIONS

As managed care has become the predominant form of Medicaid coverage, there has been a modest increase in preventive visits as indicated by EPSDT participation, with marked variation across states.