CHANGES IN HEALTH PLANS SERVING MEDICAID, 1993-1996 - THE GROWTH IN MEDICAID-ONLY PLANS RAISES NEW ISSUES FOR OVERSIGHT AND TRACKING MARKETCHANGE

To better understand the Medicaid managed care market during a period of rapid change, we developed a new data set that links Medicaid enrol lment data with health maintenance organization (HMO) industry data fo r 1993-1996 to analyze Medicaid enrollment in full-risk health plans. Nearly half of the Medicaid enrollees in a fully capitated managed car e for arrangement were in plans in which Medicaid makes up at least 75 percent of the total enrollment, In addition, the number of Medicaid- only plans has more than doubled since 1993. Commercial-based plans pa rticipated increasingly in Medicaid managed care during the period, ye t more than half of the plans entering the Medicaid market were newly formed.