Project staff will conduct a telephone survey of parents of 1200 current enrollees, 300
disenrollees, and 300 new enrollees of a sample of the MaineCare population; it will be stratified by traditional
Medicaid, Medicaid expansion, and Separate Child Health Program populations. The survey collects information on
satisfaction with MaineCare providers and services, unmet needs, provider education practices, health status, health
behaviors, insurance, and parent's employment status. The survey instrument was revised in 2006 to include several
measures from the National Survey of Children's Health (NSCH), including medical home, children with special
health care needs (CSHCN), and specific physical and mental health conditions. Because past surveys identified a
high prevalence of overweight among children on MaineCare, the survey instrument also includes a series of items
designed to measure physical activity and nutrition behaviors among children.

Cooperative agreement through the University of Minnesota, to monitor and evaluate the Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility Grant Program (Flex Program). The monitoring project is assessing the impact of the Flex Program on Critical Access Hospitals and their communities and the role of states in achieving overall program objectives.

The new Medicare Prescription Drug Coverage or "Part D" was scheduled for implementation in January, 2006, and it is clear that the implementation of the new benefit for dual eligibles and individuals participating in Drugs for the Elderly (DEL) is complex. The goal of this project is to help assess the impact of the new Medicare Prescription Drug Coverage on MaineCare and MaineCare members. Issues to be addressed include potential barriers to access to medications and continuity of medication use due to the new formularies to be used by private carriers; the potential for MaineCare expenditures for dual eligibles to increase if discontinuities in medication use lead to more nursing home admissions or home health visits; lack of information flowing from the new private carriers to MaineCare on members? medication utilization; and difficulty in monitoring quality of medication use and access to medications by MaineCare for dual eligibles.