In order to ensure providers and patients are protected as New Hampshire moves to a managed care model for the state's Medicaid program, Governor Maggie Hassan issued an Executive Order today creating the Governor's Commission on Medicaid Care Management.
The Governor's commission will bring together members of the public representing a broad range of experience in health care issues to review and advise on the implementation of an efficient, fair and high-quality Medicaid care management system.
"With new tools and federal funding available, New Hampshire has an opportunity to greatly strengthen our health care system. Moving forward with implementing Medicaid managed care is critical to ensuring that we are able to effectively expand Medicaid coverage and maximize our health care dollars," Governor Hassan said. "I also recognize the concerns and challenges surrounding managed care implementation. Members of the commission will leverage their significant experience to review implementation and provide insight to ensure we are protecting both patients and health care providers."
The Governor's Commission on Medicaid Care Management includes members with expertise in managed care and payment reform models of care, Medicaid public policy, elderly affairs, children's health, public health, mental health, developmental disabilities and adult health care services.
Mary Vallier-Kaplan, former vice president of the New Hampshire Endowment for Health, will chair the panel and Donald Shumway, former commissioner of the Department of Health and Human Services and president and CEO of Crotched Mountain Rehabilitation Center, will serve as vice-chair. The Commission's members are Thomas Bunnell, policy consultant for NH Voices for Health; Sue Fox, project director at the UNH Institute on Disability and a parent of a child with developmental disabilities; Wendy Gladstone, MD, a pediatrician at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center's Child Advocacy and Protection Program; Yvonne Goldsberry, Ph.D, MPH, vice president of Population Health and Clinical Integration at Cheshire Medical Center/ Dartmouth-Hitchcock- Keene; Catherine McDowell, founder of Coos Family Health and currently running McDowell Project Management; Douglas McNutt, Associate State Director for Advocacy, AARP NH; Gustavo Moral, President of Independent Services Network; Kenneth Norton, executive director of NAMI New Hampshire; and Jo Porter, MPH, deputy director of the NH Institute for Health Policy and Practice.
The Medicaid care management program, as enacted in 2011, is intended to improve the value, quality and efficiency of services provided through Medicaid, stimulate innovation and generate savings for New Hampshire. The program is to be implemented in three phases through contracts entered into between the Department of Health and Human Services and certain Managed Care Organizations who are responsible for providing health care services to members enrolled in the New Hampshire Medicaid Program.
The chair of the commission will call its first meeting within 30 days.