Does Medicaid Managed Care Help Equalize Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Utilization?

ABSTRACT:

Objective

To estimate the impact of different forms of Medicaid managed care (MMC) delivery on racial and ethnic disparities in utilization.

Data source

Longitudinal, administrative data on 101,649 children in Kentucky continuously enrolled in Medicaid between January 1997 and June 1999. Outcomes considered are monthly professional, outpatient, and inpatient utilization.

Study design

We apply an intent-to-treat, instrumental variables analysis using the staggered geographic implementation of MMC to create treatment and control groups of children.

Principal findings

The implementation of MMC reduced monthly professional visits by a smaller degree for non-whites than whites (3.8 percentage points vs. 6.2 percentage points), thereby helping to equalize the initial

SUBMITTER: Marton J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4874821 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature