Healthcare for Vulnerable Populations

Healthcare For
Vulnerable Populations

Medicaid 1115 SUD Demonstration Waiver Evaluation

The Medicaid 1115 Substance Use Disorder (SUD) Demonstration waiver, which began in July 2018, is a 5-year waiver that introduced a limited piloting of certain services that were previously not available or not widely available to Illinois Medicaid beneficiaries. These additional services are expected to inform the state’s efforts to transform the behavioral health system in Illinois as some beneficiaries will have access to less costly community-based services, which are expected to help beneficiaries improve their health and avoid costlier services provided in an institution. The project goals range from less utilization of emergency departments and overdose deaths to increased adherence to treatment and improved overall health.

CPRD is conducting an overall evaluation of these pilot services using Interrupted Time Series to compare trend data pre- and post-wavier and Propensity Score Matching analyses to compare groups. Data for this project is housed at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois. The evaluation will be conducted in partnership with the Office of Medicaid Innovation and funded by the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services.


Medicaid 1115 Continuity of Care and Administrative Simplification Demonstration Evaluation

The objectives of the Illinois Continuity of Care and Administrative Simplification section 1115(a) demonstration are (1) to provide quality healthcare and improve health outcomes for Medicaid beneficiaries, and (2) to reduce administrative burdens through care coordination and continuity of care initiatives. Goals include promoting continuity of coverage and care, improving managed care quality oversight, avoiding administrative complexities, and providing quality care and improving health outcomes. The Center for Prevention Research and Development (CPRD) is conducting an evaluation to measure the effectiveness of these policy changes at the state level, including a variety of measures on coverage disruptions, transitions from FFS to managed care, and the impact of waiving hospital presumptive eligibility. CPRD is partnering with Chi-Fang Wu, a professor in the School of Social Work on this project and it is funded by the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services.