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The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health is launching an updated version of the Johns Hopkins ACG® (Adjusted Clinical Groups) System to support federal health care reform. Developed in 1991, the ACG System is an industry standard risk adjustment and predictive modeling software originally developed by a team of researchers from the Bloomberg School. The updated “ACG-HIE” software will be distributed to the newly formed state Health Insurance Exchanges (HIEs) and to health plans currently under contract with these Exchanges. This innovative technology will be distributed at no cost to facilitate health care insurance reform and encourage equitable care.

Professor Jonathan Weiner from the Department of Health Policy and Management is the executive director of the ACG team.  The System is a computer-based algorithm that assesses the health of people enrolled in a given health plan or system.  Government agencies and health plans use the ACG System to help predict the need for their future health care services.  The Bloomberg School has a full time team of faculty, clinicians and staff dedicated to the research, development and maintenance of the ACG System.  According to Professor Weiner,  “Uninsured persons will be able to get subsidized insurance through these exchanges whether or not they have any pre-existing medical conditions.  When setting payment rates for the private health plans that will insure people in these HIEs, the differences in the medical needs of the persons selecting different plans must be accounted for.  Without such ‘risk adjustment,’ the health insurance exchange and possibly health reform itself could fail as some health plans may go under and others get large windfalls.”  DST Health Solutions, LLC will support and distribute this free version of the ACG software to state health insurance exchanges on behalf of the University.

Health Policy and Management Faculty Updates

Brad Herring, Associate Professor, was appointed as one of the two consumer members to the Maryland Health Insurance Plan’s (MHIP) board of directors.  MHIP was established by the State under the Health Insurance Safety Net Act of 2002 to insure individuals with chronic health conditions who are unable to obtain health insurance in the private market.    “The services provided by MHIP are quite important to the health and well-being of Maryland residents who are considered uninsurable in the individual health insurance market due to a pre-existing condition,” said Herring. “It is an honor to be named to the MHIP board directors and I’m particularly pleased to be able to apply my economic research expertise in health insurance to help the Maryland community in this manner.”

Chad Boult, Professor, returned to the fulltime faculty after spending a year at CMS on an IPA, serving as Senior Advisor for Geriatrics and Long-term Care for the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (and a year before that as a residential fellow in the Health and Aging Policy Fellows Program supported by the Atlantic Philanthropies).

Darrell J. Gaskin, Associate Professor, was appointed by Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley to serve as a one of the nine board members on the state’s Health Benefit Exchange.  The Exchange, created in response to the Affordable Care Act, will allow state residents to compare rates and benefits of health insurance plans.  It is charged with the responsibility of reducing the number of Marylanders without health insurance and providing citizens with high quality affordable private health plans at affordable costs.