An Overview of Evaluations of the Massachusetts Medicaid Managed Behavioral Health Care Program

This multi-authored report provides an overview of the evaluation activities conducted of the Massachusetts Medicaid managed behavioral health care program, the first statewide waiver program to deliver managed mental health and substance abuse services to Medicaid enrollees. The report includes chapters on service utilization and cost, service access and quality, provider changes, network development and maintenance, enrollment, and intersystem effects. Each of these chapters summarizes what was learned in the evaluations of the Massachusetts program and provides recommendations for future managed care evaluations. The report also includes a chapter that digests recommendations for managed care evaluation voiced by experts at a project symposium and a chapter of summary analysis and recommendations by the editors.