March 2 -- The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) invites public comments by May 3, 2021 on its proposed Evaluating Coverage to Care in Communities.
The goal of C2C is to improve the health of all populations, especially vulnerable and newly insured populations, by helping consumers understand their health insurance coverage and connecting individuals to primary care and preventive services. The urgency of achieving this goal is underscored by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has discouraged patients from seeking preventive care and hampered patients from properly managing chronic conditions at a time when preserving emergency room and hospital bed capacity is paramount.
The purpose of this study is to extend our understanding from RAND Corporation's prior study of how C2C materials are used. This will be accomplished by assessing what materials best serve partners in their efforts to activate, engage, and empower consumers and how consumers engage with or respond to C2C materials. These data collection efforts will also serve the goals of informing future consumer messaging and creating a long-term feedback loop for maintaining a relevant, successful, and engaging C2C initiative. Initial survey results will be available in early 2022, which may help to fine-tune the strategy for the 2022 relaunch of C2C and will influence strategies and techniques going forward. Further, this study opens the door for a feedback loop that may include future consumer testing to adjust and improve C2C outreach strategies to meet the changing needs of various targeted populations.
The C2C Logic Model serves as the basis of this package. There are three main paths of information dissemination covered by the C2C Logic Model: (a) A direct path to the consumer, (b) a path to the consumer through a partner, and (c) a role for performance measurement in improving performance (i.e., desired effect and how C2C can improve). The partner and consumer surveys in the present evaluation build upon RAND's earlier study by adapting their questions to the C2C Logic Model and using similar survey methodologies in three to four targeted geographic areas known to have received a high volume of C2C materials and messages. These research questions and sub-questions correspond to the short-term and intermediate-term outcomes on the C2C Logic Model. Thus, the foregoing is a reformulation of questions answered by RAND and a consideration of additional questions.
C2C website:
https://www.cms.gov/About-CMS/Agency-Information/OMH/equity-initiatives/from-coverage-to-care
Proposed C2C evaluation instruments and documentation:
https://www.cms.gov/regulations-and-guidancelegislationpaperworkreductionactof1995pra-listing/cms-10632
FR notice inviting public comments (see #2):
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/03/02/2021-04303/agency-information-collection-activities-proposed-collection-comment-request
Point of contact: Ashley Peddicord-Austin, Health Insurance Specialist, Office of Minority Health, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services ashley.peddicord-austin@cms.hhs.gov
