Letter From Our Director

Welcome to the VCU Office of Medicaid Evaluation.  Medicaid covers roughly 1.5 million children and adults in the Commonwealth of Virginia.  As an insurance program financed by the state and federal government, Virginia's Medicaid program has adopted a number of innovations in recent years affecting who is covered, what services are covered, and how they are covered in an effort to improve the efficacy and quality of public spending on health care for low income populations.  Our Office of Medicaid Evaluation at VCU works with Virginia's Department of Medical Assistance Services and federal partners to test efforts to advance the value Medicaid provides to the members it covers and to the Commonwealth more broadly.  Since 2016, our VCU team has collaborated with Virginia's Medicaid agency to evaluate policy and program changes in substance use disorder treatment, using managed care to provide long term services and supports, expanding the breadth and duration of coverage for Medicaid populations, and maternal and child health-focused initiatives.  I invite you to explore our website to learn more about how our team of researchers combines Medicaid administrative data, member and provider experiences we collect, and state and national health services data to serve the Commonwealth, the Department of Medical Assistance Services and the Medicaid members it covers.

Sincerely,

Andrew J. Barnes, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Director of the VCU Office of Medicaid Evaluation
Professor
Health Policy
School of Public Health  
Virginia Commonwealth University