Oregon’s per capita Medicaid spending slowed with the introduction of its CCOs, or coordinated care organizations, says an independent evaluation of Oregon’s 2012-2017 Medicaid waiver.
The report, commissioned by the Oregon Health Authority and conducted by researchers at the OHSU Center for Health Systems Effectiveness, also found that CCOs responded positively to incentive measures to improve quality, and began to make changes to the delivery system infrastructure, including greater use of primary care homes and electronic health records. .
Despite these successes, lead researcher John McConnell, Ph.D., director of the OHSU Center for Health Systems Effectiveness, says that additional work is necessary to limit state spending and improve health care quality and access.
“A focus on the integration of behavioral, oral and physical health, confronting the cost of prescription drugs, and increasing the use of value-based payments for CCOs and providers will be critical to continue to make progress on controlling spending over the next five years,” he says.