Medicaid Managed Care in Kentucky

The Urban Institute, along with its research partners at the University of Kentucky and Georgia State University, has assembled a team of seasoned researchers with unparalleled qualifications to address the challenges of evaluating the effects of Medicaid managed care in Kentucky. This research team has conducted a number of national and state-based analyses of managed care impacts in Medicaid, is very knowledgeable about the strengths and weaknesses of the available administrative and survey data, and has successfully used a similar mixed methods approach for an evaluation of the impact of previous Medicaid reforms in Kentucky. We are proposing a three-year evaluation that would address key questions related to implementation and impacts of Medicaid managed care. This evaluation comes at a critical juncture for Kentucky. The results will also be important to other states, where the trend over the last decade has been to move more of their neediest populations into managed care. Understanding the impacts of the Medicaid managed care approach in Kentucky will also provide important lessons as the state prepares for the expansion of Medicaid to more adults under the ACA as of January 2014.