Early in the process of developing MassHealth Senior Care Options (SCO), which will offer a voluntary integrated care model to dually eligible (Medicare and Medicaid) consumers, the Massachusetts Division of Medical Assistance began to establish mechanisms for communicating directly with potential, older participants.
The Consumer Advisory Group was initiated in 1996, and is comprised of eligible senior consumers or those who have responsibility for the care of Massachusetts Medicaid members aged 65 and over. Recruiting, educating, and supporting this group has been an innovative and complex process for a state agency, but it is now an integral part of agency-wide planning and evaluation for services to seniors. In 1997, the state contracted for consumer focus groups which helped to identify problems seniors and their family caregivers were experiencing in the fragmented fee-for-service environment. Additional focus groups were conducted in 1999 to help develop an outreach and education plan for the SCO project. The findings from these focus groups have provided important information as to where frail seniors obtain health information, how they make health care decisions, and what features of the SCO initiative would be most important to them. The results of these focus groups, and the implications of the lessons derived for the implementation of the SCO model, will be presented and discussed in this session.
Learning Objectives: At the end of this session, the participants will: 1) Have a clear understanding of what MassHealth SCO demonstration is; 2) Understand the efforts to involve consumers in structuring the demonstration; 3) Learn what is most important to the dually eligible consumers in accessing health care delivery
Keywords: Consumer Direction, Medicare/Medicaid
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.