Care Coordination for Medicaid Managed Care Enrollees with Mental Health Disabilities

Medicaid recipients may have complex, chronic conditions as well as significant medical and specialty service needs, particularly those with mental health disabilities. Care coordination is a core mechanism of integrated care that can increase access to services, reduce costs, and improve enrollee outcomes. This research study explores the impact of care coordination for Medicaid managed care enrollees with disabilities and mental health conditions on user-reported service delivery access and consumer experience quality outcomes. A quantitative analysis was conducted using primary data collected from consumer surveys of adults with disabilities in the Illinois Integrated Care Program (N=1,123). Of these Medicaid enrollee respondents, 476 received coordinated care through their managed care plan. Descriptive analyses of survey items describe response patterns of survey participants. Regression analyses are performed for the coordinated care group with dependent variables of total unmet needs and average health services appraisal. Study results show that more person-centered experiences with care coordination are associated with fewer unmet needs and better appraisals of their health care services overall in a Medicaid managed care population. Notably, significant differences in outcomes are also found for enrollees with mental health disabilities, with members of this group reporting more unmet needs and worse appraisals than those without mental health conditions. Findings from this study suggest enrollees with mental health disabilities may require focused attention in the application of person-centered care coordination to meaningfully enhance service access and consumer experiences in this user population. Research outcomes inform the future direction of state program policy and contribute to the development of quality reporting standards that prioritize accessible care and health equity for people with disabilities.