“Improving healthcare quality while reducing costs is a goal Abt Associates has been helping the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) pursue for more than a decade of program evaluations and other services. Through a new $23.5 million contract awarded by CMS, Abt will evaluate the Integrated Care for Kids (InCK) payment and delivery model, which serves children (0-21) covered by Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. InCK was designed to better integrate service delivery across behavioral health, physical health, and other health-related child services, while reducing expenditures and improving outcomes.”
“Using a mixed methods evaluation design, Abt will employ qualitative and quantitative techniques tailored to different locales to capture information about the model’s implementation and provider, staff, child, and beneficiary experiences.”
“Abt also will execute a quasi-experimental design to assess the impacts of the InCK model on children within and across the participating communities, and will explore how variations in implementing the model affect impacts.”
“Supporting the most vulnerable is central to Abt’s mission, so determining how to advance patient-centered services to children while keeping a lid on costs is perfectly aligned with who we are as a company,” says Dr. Christopher Spera, division vice president Health and Environment at Abt. Dr. Cori Sheedy, Abt’s project director for InCK, added, “This is a phenomenal opportunity to work with CMS to help serve kids and their families, alongside our partners – Bailit Health, Insight Policy Research, and Dennis Culhane from the University of Pennsylvania.”
About Abt Associates
Abt Associates is a global consulting and research firm that uses data and bold thinking to improve the quality of people’s lives. From conducting rigorous program evaluations and data collection to inform policy and combatting infectious disease, to ensuring safe drinking water and promoting access to affordable health care—and more—we partner with clients and communities to tackle their most complex challenges.
Source: Abt to Help CMS Evaluate a New Model Focused on Integrating Services for Kids While Reducing Costs – September 1, 2020. Abt Associates.
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