Inside Health Care #109: The End of the Emergency and the Rise of Medicaid Redetermination

Quality Matters: A Podcast by NCQA

On this episode of Inside Health Care, we talk Medicaid with a large, equity-focused provider about the end of the Fed’s pandemic-related emergency Medicaid provisions. Following that, a chat with one of our 2022-2023 PCMH Certified Content Expert Quality Award winners. Later on, some fast facts for you in observance of World Hepatitis Day.

Elevance Health, a large multi-state health insurance provider, is the largest managed care company in the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association. In September of 2022, an Elevance Health subsidiary, Simply Healthcare Plans of Florida, became one of the first health care organizations in the U.S. to earn accreditation in NCQA’s Health Equity Accreditation Plus program.

We interview Elevance Health Medicaid President Aimée Dailey alongside Staff Vice President for Medicaid Whole Health Kalunde Wambua to find out more about the company’s continued commitment to Equity improvement.

We also talk with one of NCQA’s 2022-2023 PCMH Certified Content Expert Quality Award winner, Susanne Campbell, Senior Program Administrator for the Care Transformation Collaborative of Rhode Island. We talked about the challenges of getting people on board with quality measurement. And we learned that, as measurement improves, customer focus improves, and health delivery becomes more efficient, all leading to solutions for resolving historic gaps in health equity.

Finally, in our Fast Facts segment, we observe the World Health Organization’s World Hepatitis Day, scheduled annually every July 28th. We include resources from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services alongside an article from the NIH. Hepatitis awareness includes further reminders for childhood immunization, something NCQA measures in our HEDIS Measures package called Childhood Immunization Status, or C-I-S. The measure calculates the rates for a number of childhood vaccines and vaccine combinations. Among the vaccines in the list, alongside DTaP, MMR, and the flu, are vaccines for both Hep A and Hep B.

We're also proud to announce that Inside Health Care won two media industry awards, both announced in June 2023. We won a Merit award from the Digital Health Awards. We've also been named a Gold Winner 2023 by the Hermes Awards. Thanks to all our interviewees and leadership staff at NCQA for their support along the way.