Last year, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) created a scorecard to improve public transparency and accountability of two state-based programs, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and recently added new data. The Scorecard reports measures on State Health System Performance (i.e. postpartum care and follow-up after hospitalization for mental illness), State Administrative Accountability (i.e., days to get information on State Plan Amendments), and Federal Administrative Accountability (i.e., time to approve waiver requests) with the intent of driving improvement in beneficiary outcomes and administration of the programs. Medicaid is an important source of health coverage for rural populations covering about a quarter of nonelderly rural individuals. The scorecard can be accessed here.
