2025 in the Rearview
- Madeleine Richter-Atkinson
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
Treaty Oak Strategies Reflects on Year 6 of the MCO NMDOH Learning Collaborative
Treaty Oak Strategies (TOS) successfully closed out year 6 of Texas Medicaid Managed Care Organization (MCO) Non-Medical Drivers of Health (NMDOH) Learning Collaborative (LC) funded by the Episcopal Health Foundation and Michael and Susan Dell Foundation and supported by the Texas Association of Health Plans, Texas Association of Community Health Plans with the Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC).
The Learning Collaborative entered its’ sixth year in January 2025, managed by Treaty Oak Strategies with support from the Center for Health Care Strategies. During Year six, the LC build off the work of year five which focused heavily on supporting implementation of HB 1575, learning more about community health workers and doulas, and health plan member literacy and engagement.
This Year's Successes
The Learning Collaborative continues its rapid growth: every webinar this year had more than 100 attendees, and we hosted our largest webinar (243 attendees) and in-person meeting (94 attendees) to date. Partnership expanded to include the Texas Association of City and County Health Officials, local health departments, and both Wisconsin and Michigan's health services departments. Our topics expanded this year, too, including webinars that focused directly on the Medicaid transportation benefit, diabetes prevention, rural health grants, and OBBBA.
Notably, the Executive Commissioner of HHSC and her deputies all attended an in-person meeting and gave Learning Collaborative members the first public briefing on OBBBA, demonstrating the trust that has been built between HHSC and the LC.
Treaty Oak Strategies and all of our Learning Collaborative partners are excited to continue building on this growth in year 7.
This Year's Meetings
The Learning Collaborative kicked off the year on March 7, 2025 in Austin, Texas to discuss ways we can continue to collaborate, share best practices, and advance interventions to address NMDOH of Medicaid members. The meeting covered a range of topics and speakers, including an overview of potential national policy changes, updates on HB 1575 and the HHSC Quality Strategy from HHSC, an overview of DSHS’ maternal health programs and community paramedicine, a discussion between providers and MCOs on NMDOH screening, and an update on the DFW ARPA-H Project.
On April 11, 2025, the Learning Collaborative hosted a webinar and invited Milliman to present on two recent reports commissioned by EHF describing the demographic characteristics, economics, and healthcare experience of two priority populations in Texas Medicaid, type 2 diabetes and associated risk factors, and high-risk pregnancy.
On May 30, 2025, the Learning Collaborative hosted a webinar focused on a recent report entitled Texas' Non-Emergency Medical Transportation (NEMT): Utilization and Barrier to Use and an overview of Molina's Mobile Integrated Health Community Paramedicine Program.
Te Learning Collaborative met in August to discuss healthy food and nutrition initiatives, including in-lieu-of services (ILOS) and medically-tailored meals for certain high-risk pregnant Medicaid members. Dr. Jeffery Huebner, Chief Medical Officer for the Wisconsin Medicaid Program at the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, shared experiences and lessons learned from implementing medically tailored meals as an ILOS, which was launched in early 2025.
The Learning Collaborative held a webinar to discuss Michigan's implementation of ILOS nutritional supports, which began in October 2024 and offers various meals and food services through medicaid health plans. Additionally, Dr. Sandra McKay and Dr. Ashley Gibson presented their pediatric screening program at UT Health, which assesses non-medical needs through a screening tool that has shown positive results in reducing health care utilization. The team discussed their ongoing pilot study and plans for a longitudinal evaluation to assess long-term health outcomes and healthcare utilization patterns, with potential partnerships with MCOs to evaluate cost savings and population health benefits.
The Learning Collaborative met for its second in-person meeting of the year to discuss a range of issues. HHSC provided updates on implementation of HB 1575 and its Executive Commissioner gave an overview of OBBBA. Attendees also heard about efforts to improve MCO-health department relationships, health plan nutrition programs and value-added food services, implementation of the PCHI model in Texas, the BCBSTX-Central Texas Food Bank FARMacy program, the All Payor Claims Database, and ongoing Learning Collaborative projects.
The Learning Collaborative convened again in October for a webinar to discuss several recent reports on the cost of diabetes in Texas and on diabetes prevention programs. The meeting sets the stage for implementation of Rider 38 in HHSC's 2026-2027 budget. Rider 38 directs HHSC, in consultation with DSHS, to evaluate the cost-effectiveness and feasibility of implementing and administering a diabetes prevention program for Medicaid recipients.
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