Site Visit Frequently Asked Questions

Attachment 5.a. Background/FAQ Document
Site Visits by the Evaluators of CMS’s
Medicaid Incentives for Prevention of Chronic Diseases Evaluation

The Evaluation of the Medicaid Incentives for Prevention of Chronic Diseases
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is conducting an evaluation of the
Medicaid Incentives for Prevention of Chronic Diseases (MIPCD) demonstration. As part of this
demonstration, 10 states were awarded grants to implement chronic disease prevention programs
among their Medicaid enrollees that test the use of incentives to encourage behavior change.
Under contract with CMS, RTI International and the National Academy for State Health Policy
(NASHP) have designed an independent cross-state evaluation that examines four topics
specifically mandated by Congress:
a. the effect of the initiatives on the use of health care services by Medicaid beneficiaries
participating in the program;
b. the extent to which special populations (including adults with disabilities, adults with
chronic illnesses, and children with special health care needs) are able to participate in
the program;
c. the level of satisfaction of Medicaid beneficiaries with respect to the accessibility and
quality of health care services provided through the program; and
d. the administrative costs incurred by state agencies that are responsible for administration
of the program.
The national evaluation team is using a mixed-methods research design, combining both
quantitative and qualitative data. To collect qualitative data, we will be conducting two sets of
stakeholder interviews and focus group discussions with participants. The first set of interviews
will take place as part of our site visit. These visits will allow our team to gain a better
understanding of the factors that facilitate successful implementation, or act as barriers, and to
learn more about program details such as the types of special populations involved in or targeted
by your state program, your data collection processes, and the project’s evaluation progress. The
second set of interviews will target stakeholders who spend at least 50 percent of their time
interacting with program participants. In many states, we anticipate these interviews to be
conducted with program leaders, clinicians, educators, and possibly participant recruiters. These
stakeholder interviews are designed to assess beneficiaries’ satisfaction with the quality of care
provided by and accessibility of the program.
For this site visit, we would like to meet with individuals in each state who hold one of the
following five program-associated roles. The anticipated duration of each interview is noted in
brackets.
•
•
•
•
•

Managers [1.5 hours]
Educators [1 hour]
Recruiters [45 minutes]
Clinic staff (including providers, clinic administrative staff, and nurse care managers) [1 hour]
Evaluators [45 minutes]

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Frequently Asked Questions About the Site Visits and Interviews
Below is a list of frequently asked questions that can help prepare you for these interviews.
1. Can I participate in a group interview, rather than being interviewed by myself?
Our preference is to meet with interviewees individually, to maximize the amount of
information we are able to collect from each person. Also, to ensure confidentiality and for
notetaking purposes, we respectfully request individual interviews with each stakeholder.
2.

What type of questions will you ask during the interview?
We will ask about your experience implementing your state’s program. The types of topics
we plan to cover depend on your role in the initiative. Examples of topics to be covered
include:
Management, Participant Recruiters, and Clinic staff
• Implementation progress including a focus on participant recruitment and incentives
• Special populations
• State grant evaluation progress
• Data collection
Educators (e.g., Peer coaches, navigators, program teachers)
• Implementation progress including a focus on participant recruitment, retention, and
incentives
• Special populations
• State grant evaluation progress
• Data collection
Evaluators
• Overall implementation progress
• Special populations
• State grant evaluation progress
• Data collection

3. How will information collected from the site visit interviews be used in the evaluation?
We will interview individuals in each of the 10 MIPCD programs to learn about their
implementation progress to date. This feedback will be used to help inform future evaluation
tasks such as the focus group discussions, the beneficiary survey, and the quantitative data
analyses. Evaluation findings including feedback from the site visits will be included in the
Second Report to Congress about the MIPCD demonstration and the comprehensive MIPCD
evaluation report.

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4. Will this report be made available to me?
Yes. We will submit two reports to CMS. The first report, the Second Report to Congress
about the MIPCD demonstration, will be submitted by June 2016. The second report, the
comprehensive MIPCD evaluation report, will be submitted by March 2017. CMS intends to
share these reports with you and other interested parties.
5. Will I be quoted in any reports you produce?
We will use some quotes in reports, but quotes will not be attributed to an individual or his or
her organization. In other words, we will not quote you by name.
6. Will people be able to figure out that you talked to me?
We will combine people’s interview comments to identify trends (e.g., we might state in our
report that “recruiters in most of the states found the incentives to be helpful for motivating
individuals to join the program”). If we decide to include a comment made by a specific
interviewee, we will use the absolute minimum amount of descriptive information about the
individual or entity, such that you cannot be identified in any way. We believe there are
minimal risks to you from participation, and every effort will be made to protect your
confidentiality.
7. Will interviews be recorded?
With permission, we would like to record the interviews so that we can ensure that our notes
are complete and accurate. We will ask for your permission to record the interview as part of
the informed consent process at the beginning of the interview. We will not record interviews
if a respondent so chooses and we will not use the recordings in any way other than to
confirm the accuracy of our notes. Also, all of our recordings are kept in a secure location
and will be destroyed after our evaluation is complete.
8. Can I decline to be interviewed?
Yes. As a condition of your program’s participation in CMS’s MIPCD demonstration, CMS
expects state staff and participants to cooperate with our evaluation team, but ultimately your
decision to participate in this aspect of our study is voluntary. If you do not wish to
participate in an interview or answer specific questions, please let us know.
There are no direct benefits to you from participating in this study. But your insights will be
used by federal and state policymakers as well as other Medicaid programs to improve the
impact that incentives have on chronic disease prevention and management among Medicaid
beneficiaries and address the challenges involved in implementing an incentivized health
prevention program. The Institutional Review Board at RTI has reviewed and approved this
research.

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Further Questions?
Please feel free to contact the following individuals:
• The researcher managing the site visits:
Rebecca Perry, rjperry@rti.org
•

The researcher leading the MIPCD evaluation, who can answer questions about
research methods and data sources being used in this evaluation:
Thomas Hoerger, tjh@rti.org

•

The Institutional Review Board that approved this data collection, which can
answer questions about your rights as a research participant:
RTI International’s Institutional Review Board, Office of Research Protection, 1-866214-2043

•

The CMS representative overseeing the MIPCD evaluation:
Jean Scott, Jean.Scott@cms.hhs.gov

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