Contact:
Dinah Winnick
(410) 455-8117
dwinnick@umbc.edu

Marsha Willis
(410) 455-6383
mwillis@hilltop.umbc.edu

The Hilltop Institute at UMBC has released two significant publications this week on health care topics. Hilltop’s Hospital Community Benefit Program posted its first issue brief in a series funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Entitled “Hospital Community Benefits after the ACA: The Emerging Federal Framework,” the brief provides historical background on federal hospital community benefit policy; outlines the new requirements described in the Affordable Care Act (ACA); and identifies new challenges and opportunities for state and federal decision-makers as they begin to develop responses to the new federal requirements.

Hilltop’s other new issue brief—“Overcoming Interagency Data-Sharing Barriers: Lessons from the Maryland Kids First Act”—describes interagency data-sharing barriers that researchers and state officials encountered as they implemented and evaluated the Maryland Kids First Act outreach initiative. It provides an overview of strategies used to identify uninsured children who are eligible for public insurance programs; an update on Maryland’s tax-based outreach program, including a description of the interagency data-sharing barriers encountered and their resolution; a discussion of new data-sharing and outreach opportunities outlined in the ACA; and a discussion of lessons for other states.

The Maryland Health Care Reform Coordinating Council (HCRCC) also released its final report this week, for which Hilltop’s researchers conducted an in-depth analysis of the provisions of the ACA and developed a financial model to project Maryland’s costs and savings associated with implementing health reform. The HCRCC was created by Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley to make recommendations regarding Maryland’s implementation of the ACA, and this final report sets a blueprint for that implementation. Learn more about this initiative and view the interim and final reports at the HCRCC website.