Evaluation of the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System: Comparison of AHCCCS Program Cost with That of a Traditional Medicaid Program for Fiscal Year 1986 and Fiscal Year 1987

摘要

The report provides an estimate of the cost saving of the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS) program during its fourth and fifth program years, FY 1986 and FY 1987, considering only beneficiaries eligible for Federal financial participation. The methodology used to estimate the program cost savings compares AHCCCS costs to an estimate of what a traditional Medicaid program might have cost in Arizona. In FY 1986, the fourth year of the AHCCCS program, the estimate of cost savings ranged from $4.1 million to $6.5 million, or from 3.7 percent to 5.7 percent of the cost of a traditional Medicaid program in Arizona, depending on the method used to value savings. For the fifth year, FY 1987, overall program savings (loss) ranged from a loss of $5 million to a savings of $11.8 million, or from -4 percent to 8.3 percent of the cost of a traditional Medicaid program. For the first 5 years of the program, estimates of overall program savings estimates ranged from $450,000 to $30.4 million. From FY 1983 to FY 1987, AHCCCS' incurred cost per capita increased 23.1 percent, while similar Medicaid programs' per capita costs increased by 37.3 percent.