Center for Health Economics & Policy

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Latest News

Center creates user-friendly Missouri Medicaid Enrollment Tracking tool

December 2, 2021
The Center for Health Economics and Policy at the Institute for Public Health has launched the Missouri Medicaid Enrollment Tracking Dashboard, as a resource for the community to track the impact of Medicaid expansion on Missouri Medicaid enrollment.  Timothy McBride, PhD, co-director of the Center for Health Economics and Policy says, “We are excited to […]

Center reports recommendations for maternal health policy changes in Missouri

November 17, 2021
Maternal and infant health is a critical problem for Missouri and the rest of the United States. While many other health metrics have improved in the U.S. in recent decades, outcomes for mothers and infants have worsened. Maternal mortality rates in Missouri and nationally have been rising in recent years; Missouri’s rate exceeds the national […]

At the intersection of health policy and equity with Karen Joynt Maddox, MD, MPH (Links to an external site)

November 9, 2021
Written by Leslie Roettger, ICTS/DOM Media/Marketing Administrator  The Department of Medicine recently caught up for a chat with Karen Joynt Maddox, associate professor in the Cardiovascular Division and co-director of the Center for Health Economics and Policy at the Institute for Public Health. Joynt Maddox spoke about the role of social determinants of health in […]
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Premature Birth: Paving the Path for my Granddaughter

Written by Ebony B. Carter, MD, MPH, assistant professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Washington University School of Medicine Embed from Getty Images “In the shadows of our finest medical facilities, where kings and shahs travel thousands of miles for the world’s best medical care, black babies continue to die.” My mother opened nearly every […]
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Latest Policy Brief

Expanding the Primary Care Health Home Model

by Tamara Sánchez Ortíz, MD/MPH candidate and Abigail Barker, PhD, Center for Health Economics & Policy, Washington University in St. Louis | August 2021

Missouri’s Primary Care Health Home program (PCHH) offers a promising cost-effective model for taking care of patients with chronic conditions, and it has the potential to do so in greater volumes and with a wider scope of patients. In August 2020, Missourians voted to expand Medicaid (also known as MO HealthNet Division, MHD) in the state by July 2021. Given an influx of new enrollees, the time is ripe for MHD to re-evaluate how to best take care of its Medicaid population, particularly those that are disproportionately incurring high healthcare costs from inadequately managed chronic health conditions. Building on the success of Missouri’s nearly one-decade-old, comprehensive, patient-centered PCHH model, this white paper outlines recommendations for expanding the program to further advance the state’s goals in pursuit of the “Triple Aim” of healthcare: lowering costs, improving population health, and providing higher quality care.

These recommendations were developed after close evaluation of Missouri’s PCHH program, research on other states’ programs, and interviews with different PCHH team members at various PCHH sites across Missouri.

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