Medicaid selects MCO participants for first phase of type 2 diabetes project
Maryland was 1 of 2 states awarded funding for 2-year prevention effort
Baltimore, MD (August 30, 2016) – The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has selected the managed care organizations (MCOs) that will participate in a demonstration project to show ways to offer the National Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) to Medicaid recipients. Earlier this summer, Maryland was one of two states awarded funding for the program.
“This is a great opportunity for Maryland, and we are eager for the implementation of the project to get under way,” said Health and Mental Hygiene Secretary Van T. Mitchell. “For Maryland to be one of two states selected to explore the viability of this service-delivery model in serving our Medicaid populations attests to the level of work being done by our team.”
The four MCOs that will participate in the first year of the two-year project are Amerigroup,
Jai Medical Systems, MedStar Family Choice and Priority Partners. “Earlier this summer, the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors awarded funding to our Medicaid program for this two-year demonstration project,” said Deputy Secretary of Public Health Financing Shannon McMahon, who oversees Maryland’s Medicaid Program. “It was our goal to have four of our eight MCOs participate. So, we are very pleased.”
Maryland Medicaid, housed in Health and Mental Hygiene, will use this funding to offer a non-competitive grant opportunity to the four MCOs to implement delivery models for the National DPP to Medicaid beneficiaries with prediabetes and at high risk for type 2 diabetes through a virtual, CDC-recognized lifestyle-change program such as Omada Health’s Prevent for Underserved Populations – as well as through community-based, in-person programs.
The Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Control (the Center), also situated within Health and Mental Hygiene, will support this demonstration by providing diabetes prevention expertise to the MCOs as they establish relationships with the CDC-recognized lifestyle-change programs. Medicaid and the Center have successfully collaborated on past projects that supported MCOs’ implementation of interventions that strengthened systems that enable Marylanders to better manage hypertension and diabetes.
In July 2015, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Division of Diabetes Translation awarded a cooperative agreement through the CDC Office of State, Tribal, Local, and Territorial Support to NACDD. The purpose of this cooperative agreement is to test the feasibility and effectiveness of various models to promote Medicaid coverage for the National DPP. The delivery models will be evaluated by NACDD, and successful models will be documented for use by other states. The ultimate goal of this demonstration is to achieve sustainable coverage of the National DPP for Medicaid beneficiaries under current Medicaid authorities.
Oregon was the other state awarded funding for the National DPP.
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