Date and Time
May 14, 2003
1:30 PM - 3:00 PM

Availability
Open to the public
No RSVP required

Speaker
Laurence C. Baker - Assistant Professor

During the course of the 1990s, California significantly expanded the role of managed care in its Medicaid program. We exploit variations in the timing of implementation across counties to examine the impact managed care implementation had on spending and on health care use and outcomes for pregnant mothers and newborns. We find that the adoption of the program did not reduce spending, and may have increased it. Adoption of managed care is associated with noticeable changes in health care utilization, including changes in prenatal care use, hospital stays, use of "intensive" birth procedures like induction, and access to high-level NICUs for low birthweight newborns. Evidence on outcome impacts is mixed, but evidence suggests better outcomes for very low birthweight infants.