CMS Issues First Annual Update to the Medicaid and CHIP Program Scorecard

The Scorecard enables American taxpayers to see how Medicaid and CHIP programs improve beneficiaries’ lives, ensures efficient use of taxpayer dollars to strengthen program integrity and accountability.

The Trump Administration and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) (@CMSGov) are continuing to transform Medicaid with the publication of the first annual update to the Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) Scorecard. The update promotes greater transparency and accountability by including additional data points, measures and enhanced functionality, and ensuring taxpayers’ dollars are being used efficiently on the $600 billion programs which serve nearly 73 million children and adults.

“Taxpayers have a vested interest in assuring we maintain a strong safety net in our nation’s commitment to care for our most vulnerable citizens,” said CMS Administrator Seema Verma. “Under the leadership of President Trump, CMS is taking the steps necessary to hold states accountable, in part, by giving the public access to more information on these programs that pushes us all to move toward better accountability for results – a necessary step for the largest coverage program in the nation.”

CMS released its first-ever Medicaid and CHIP Scorecard in June 2018. The fall 2019 Scorecard updates are part of a broader three-pillared Medicaid strategy to achieve a better balance between appropriate federal oversight and state flexibility, ensuring fiscal integrity and promoting accountability for the quality of care provided to Medicaid beneficiaries. The Scorecard includes measures in three areas: State Health System Performance; State Administrative Accountability; and Federal Administrative Accountability.

The Scorecard is the public-facing federal dashboard of state health and administrative performance in the Medicaid and CHIP programs. The first Scorecard promoted significant steps to improve transparency and accountability for program outcomes giving insight into states’ Medicaid and CHIP program through public reporting. In July 2019, sections of the Medicaid and CHIP Scorecard were refreshed with updated data. The fall 2019 Medicaid and CHIP Scorecard update reflects an expanded set of measures and enhanced functionality.

CMS is responding to stakeholder feedback and continuing to enhance transparency and accountability in Medicaid and CHIP by strengthening the Scorecard with better usability and more information in the national context. New measures include breast cancer screening, diabetes care poor control, follow-up after hospitalization for mental illness (children), nursing facility long-stay hospitalization rate, and healthcare fraud prevention partnership participation. New national context data points include annual enrollment by payer, enrollment in any type of managed care plan by state, waivers for Home & Community Based Services by state, and substance use disorders Section 1115 Demonstrations by state. In addition, the Scorecard includes the first set of T-MSIS based per capita Medicaid expenditures across a subset of states.

The site will provide more functionality by allowing users to sort measures by performance rate or alphabetical order and toggle between screens to view measures that have multi-component rates.

CMS continues to engage internal and external stakeholders in identifying enhancements to the Scorecard, including receiving input from variety of Medicaid agencies through a collaboration with the National Association of Medicaid Directors.

See more information pertaining to the Scorecard.