Center for Maternal and Child Health Medicaid Partnerships - The Center for Maternal and Child Health Medicaid Partnerships (CMMP) will help state Medicaid, Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and Title V Maternal and Child Health Services Block Grant (Title V) programs identify shared priorities and provide meaningful, tailored assistance to achieve their goals for Medicaid and CHIP-eligible maternal and child health (MCH) populations. By providing tools, strategies, and technical assistance (TA) to align interagency agreements and financing and funding models, the CMMP will build on, solidify existing, and advance new efforts to overcome the challenges inherent in building a comprehensive system that improves eligibility, coverage, and access; formalizes policies and accountability mechanisms; creates innovative payment models; and maximizes resources to scale and sustain improvements. This center presents an opportunity to create innovation and break down the silos of these state agencies. In particular, the focus on unique payment and financing strategies within agencies to support and braid funding streams will reduce gaps in access and coverage for MCH populations while facilitating the scale and spread of innovations in MCH care within and across states. The CMMP will not only move across agencies, but also up and down the continuum of care by including managed care organizations (MCOs), service providers, and families/patients affected by the delivery of care; this will allow the CMMP to incorporate voices not typically included in state-level systems change efforts, but who are nevertheless key to implementation and greatly impacted by state MCH efforts. Altarum has united highly qualified, long-standing partners, the Center for Healthcare Strategies (CHCS), Family Voices, and the Association for Maternal and Child Health Programs (AMCHP) along with a newly developed national Technical Expert Panel that includes pivotal community-engaged organizations and individuals with lived experience, MCOs, current and former Title V and Medicaid Directors, and key MCH-focused associations and organizations. Our collective experience allows us to serve as a “universal translator” across Medicaid, CHIP, and Title V. Our approach includes annual virtual convenings to elevate state models of collaboration through case studies and state leader presentations, a CMMP Web Based Portal housing a Peer Sharing Discussion Platform where states can discuss issues and questions, and a TA Materials and Resource Repository of resources, such as a terminology primer, a repository of Medicaid State plans and Waiver language, and of MCO contract language. We will also select at least 35 states (7 per yearly cohort) to participate in 1:1 TA focused on Collaboration and interagency agreements (IAAs) and innovative financing strategies. Within each of these states we will create a state CMMP workgroup that includes leaders/staff from Medicaid, CHIP, and Title V; hold kickoff calls with each state to discuss shared priorities and create state action plans; provide direct, tailored 1:1 TA to support action plan implementation; host learning communities (2 virtual, 1 in-person per year) per state in each cohort; and Peer-to-Peer mentorship virtual sessions between state cohorts starting in Year 2. By creating a more comprehensive network, we will build greater understanding and strengthen relationships to address barriers to collaboration and create sustainable solutions to improve care and outcomes and reduce disparities for MCH populations.
