Addressing Health Equity in Medicaid Managed Care

Executive Summary

Advocates have long pushed states and CMS to improve Medicaid data collection and reporting on health disparities with little to show for it. It is now long past time for the agency, Congress, and other health policymakers to fulfill that principle with real and urgent action. This brief provides tools to understand the various Medicaid managed care requirements for collecting and reporting data on health equity. Many barriers, including both a lack of funding and political will, continue to obstruct such reporting. We also explore the potential of CMS’s new data reporting system, T-MSIS, for improving the quality, frequency, and transparency of health disparities data in Medicaid. Advocates may be able to use some of the federal requirements and initiatives to push for improved reporting on health disparities. Absent federal requirements, they may point to some of the more proactive states and quality measurement organizations that are implementing policies to improve health equity reporting in managed care.