HilltopInstitute

US Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez, JD, MPP, gave the keynote address at a special event hosted by The Hilltop Institute on April 29, 2014, at UMBC. The event honored Chuck Milligan, JD, MPH, who recently stepped down from his post as Deputy Secretary for Health Care Financing at the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Milligan was Hilltop’s Executive Director from 2004 to 2011 and served the state of Maryland for ten years. Milligan is relocating to New Mexico, where he will be Senior Vice President of Presbyterian Healthcare Services. The event, consisting of a program titled… Continue Reading US Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez Gives Keynote at Hilltop Special Event

Michael T. Abrams, MPH, a senior research analyst at The Hilltop Institute, co-authored two articles published in the April 2014 issue of Psychiatric Services. The articles are both based on a study of low-income young adults (aged 18-26) discharged from an inpatient psychiatric event, a marker for serious mental distress. Identifying Young Adults at Risk of Medicaid Enrollment Lapses After Inpatient Mental Health Treatment discusses a study that identified antecedents to Medicaid enrollment lapses in the year following discharge. Such lapses are undesirable because they suggest absence of medical attention that is especially indicated in the wake of an inpatient… Continue Reading Hilltop Researcher Michael Abrams Co-Authors Two Articles Published in Psychiatric Services

Hilltop Senior Regulatory and Policy Advisor, Maansi Raswant, JD, gave a presentation titled The Affordable Care Act’s Impact on Small Business to the Catonsville Chamber of Commerce on October 30, 2013 at the Charlestown Retirement Community. In the presentation, Raswant gave an overview of the basic provisions of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and described health reform implementation in Maryland; described the ACA mandates for coverage (who needs to have it and who needs to provide it); and discussed how to determine whether an employer is considered a large or small employer, how to purchase coverage through exchanges, new benefits… Continue Reading Hilltop Presents on ACA’s Impact on Small Business

Hilltop Senior Research Analyst Michael Abrams was co-author on a presentation made recently at an international meeting focused on schizophrenia research (see citation below). The work demonstrates that among women with serious mental illness who are engaged in Maryland Medicaid, those with substance use disorders are at elevated risk for missing breast cancer screening. By somewhat surprising contrast, women with other mental disorders (e.g., schizophrenia and depression), were not at elevated risk for missing such screening. For more information contact: mabrams@hilltop.umbc.edu. Reference: Sullivan K,  Abrams M, Feldman S,  Myers S, McMahon R, Kelly D: “Analysis of Maryland Medicaid Data to… Continue Reading Hilltop Work on Breast Cancer Screening Presented at International Meeting

The Baltimore Business Journal reports that Maryland is pushing back the launch of its small business health exchange by at least three months to allow more time for leaders to prepare the complex IT system involved and to train brokers who will bring businesses to the exchange. The story cites analysis from The Hilltop Institute at UMBC that approximately 8,500 people are expected to get insurance through the small business exchange in its first year. This compares with the 138,764 people to buy health insurance through the individual exchange by 2014. By 2020, Hilltop expects the small business exchange to… Continue Reading The Hilltop Institute in the Baltimore Business Journal

The Hilltop Institute’s Hospital Community Benefit Program has just released a new online resource: the Community Benefit State Law Profiles. The profiles are a compilation of hospital community benefit laws and regulations across the United States, analyzed in the context of the Affordable Care Act’s community benefit framework. They include data on tax exemptions that most states make available to nonprofit hospitals. Readers can access this information through a new interactive map, or see a summary table for side-by-side comparisons of different state policies. A companion issue brief, “Hospital Community Benefits after the ACA: The State Law Landscape” (pdf), presents… Continue Reading UMBC’s Hilltop Shares New Hospital Community Benefit Resource

The Maryland Health Care Reform Simulation Model report produced by The Hilltop Institute at UMBC continues to get press coverage. The Baltimore Business Journal cites a Hilltop estimate of the number of new jobs to be stimulated by health reform in Maryland in the article, “Medical sector heightens focus on jobless to fill demand” [log-in required]. The article states, “A report by the Hilltop Institute at University of Maryland Baltimore County estimates Maryland employers will add 26,900 jobs by 2020 in response to health reform. Labs need assistants to oversee safety and animal care, and hospitals need people to transport… Continue Reading Hilltop in the Baltimore Business Journal

A new article in Governing magazine, titled “How Higher Education Could Save Medicaid,” explores public universities as effective partners in states’ efforts to reform their Medicaid systems to be more fiscally sustainable and prepare for a significant enrollment expansion under the Affordable Care Act. The Hilltop Institute at UMBC offers one of three examples nation-wide for how this partnership can work. Governing calls Hilltop “one of the primary Medicaid policymaking labs for the state,” noting that it “is responsible for all financial modeling, helped [Maryland] develop its managed care program and works with an actuarial firm to set the capitated… Continue Reading The Hilltop Institute in “Governing” Magazine