Medicaid Cost Containment: Report No. 1
October 2002
Washington State Legislature
Like Washington, almost all states are experiencing a fiscal crisis, and Medicaid is considered to be one of the largest causes of the budget problem. States have several policy tools to address these budget challenges. For varying reasons, all can be politically difficult, and all represent hard choices. Most states have begun implementing cost containment strategies but few have saved enough money to entirely solve their budget problems.
Through an innovative cost containment project for the State of Washington, whereby Lewin jointly was hired by the Governor's budget office and the Legislature's fiscal committees, Lewin measured the success of Washington's recent cost containment initiatives, including a series of pharmacy strategies commenced in 2002. Lewin also presented to Washington additional Medicaid cost containment options based on other states' approaches, and we modeled the potential savings to Washington of each "imported" option, utilizing data provided to us by Washington. This is the first of three reports prepared for this project. Report No. 1 inventories Washington's ongoing Medicaid cost containment activities.