CPHLR Fellow Dr. Tom Brewer, Associate Professor of Health Policy and Management in the College of Public Health at Kent State University, received a $59,820 grant to conduct a nationwide review of Medicaid statutes and regulations related to coverage for podiatry services. The project, entitled "Medicaid Coverage for Podiatric Care: National Survey," was funded by The Podiatry Foundation whose mission is to promote and foster podiatric medical education and research.
Dr. Brewer is using policy surveillance to collect and catalog laws in the 56 Medicaid jurisdictions that establish optional coverage of podiatric services to detect patterns across opt-in vs. non opt-in states and by region.
A growing body of research is demonstrating the relationship between Medicaid coverage for podiatry services and positive clinical outcomes for patients with diabetes, peripheral vascular diseases, and other chronic conditions of the foot. Associated with these clinical outcomes, dramatic cost savings have been realized in the reduction of amputations and other severe clinical outcomes. As promising as these results are, their generalizability is limited beyond the few states studied. This project will establish a nuanced legal dataset that will allow for more sophisticated analyses of clinical outcomes, cost, and the relationship between coverage and scope of practice.