State Medicaid leaders, community partners, and managed care organizations require current, trustworthy information in our shifting health care landscape 

Because of their disadvantaged circumstances, people insured through Medicaid tend to experience poorer health outcomes and less equitable treatment than other Americans. Medicaid managed care organizations (MCOs), which most states rely on to manage Medicaid health plans, may be earnest in their efforts to provide top-quality care. But patients’ well-being can be impaired by factors outside the purview of medical professionals, such as food insecurity, homelessness, and behavioral health disorders. 

NORC offered reliable and timely resources and strategies to advance health equity for Medicaid populations. 

NORC and its partner, Speire Healthcare Strategies, LLC, teamed with America's Health Insurance Plans and the Association for Community Affiliated Plans and Community Catalyst and Families. Together, we hosted a series of wide-ranging discussions with MCOs and advocates on how MCOs could collaborate with community-based organizations to improve the overall health of Medicaid enrollees. In these roundtables, we identified barriers that separated these would-be allies to produce a series of briefs with findings and recommendations from these discussions. We also research briefs based on literature reviews and spotlights based on discussions with states and other organizations to highlight best practices that could be copied elsewhere.