Volume 81 Number 3, 2003
Honesty As Good Policy: Evaluating Maryland's Medicaid Managed Care Program
Debbie I. Chang, Alice Burton, John O'Brien, and Robert E. Hurley
State policymakers have been at the center of many important health care reform initiatives in the past decade. Launching large-scale, innovative programs presents many challenges for state agencies in design, implementation, and management. Conducting credible evaluations of these initiatives also is a crucial activity that may be overlooked or neglected because of resource constraints or competing demands on key staff. The experience gained in Maryland's HealthChoice evaluation reveals how a strong commitment to an open and participatory process combined with a rigorous focus on the need for quantitative and qualitative data contributed to both a better understanding of the program's effects and greater support for its future development.
