Does Managed Care Hurt Health? Evidence From Medicaid Mothers

URL:

Abstract:

Study found private Medicaid managed care (MMC) companies in California had a negative effect on prenatal care and birth outcomes. According to the study, MMC was associated with large declines in the utilization of prenatal care among women under Medi-Cal or county organized health systems. The implementation of MMC also was associated with low birth weight, shorter gestation periods and neonatal death among the same women. "These results provide strong evidence that health care providers responded to managed care incentives to reduce costs by limiting care and suggest that these limitations in care had negative effects on infant births," the researchers write. They added that these "negative effects may have been especially pronounced in this population because the plans' incentive to provide preventive care was effectively removed."