Texas Women’s Health Report reveals new enrollment and cost-savings trends

Emily Viles | May 21, 2019 | Texas

The Texas Health and Human Services Commission released a new Texas Women’s Health Programs Report earlier this month. Overall, enrollment has increased in both programs, as have cost-savings to the state.

The report is a requirement of the 2018-2019 General Appropriations Act and provides a summary of program enrollment, utilization, and cost-savings initiatives for the Healthy Texas Women Program (HTW) and the Family Planning Program (FPP). These programs provide family planning and women’s services at low or no cost to the patient and operate across the state.

HTW operates via a network of independent providers who provide family planning care and make secondary referrals. Services include family planning, contraceptives, and well woman annual exams.

FPP receives funding from HHSC through a contract system. Various providers, including medical schools, hospitals, clinics, local health departments, federally funded clinics, and community-based clinics, receive funding to provide these services. Services include family planning, contraceptives, STI testing, natural family planning counseling, and sterilization.

The report released this month reflects the trends from the 2018 fiscal year, and includes the following metrics:

HTW client enrollment totals
HTW and FPP clients served
HTW provider categories and enrollment totals
most commonly utilized procedure codes by program
cost savings
outreach efforts
HTW and FPP long-acting reversible contraceptive (LARC) utilization.

HTW

HTW is actively looking for ways to increase the total number of billing providers. The number of billing providers has increased steadily since 2011, as reflected in the table below:

In 2018, enrollment in HTW programs grew 10.9 percent from fiscal year 2017. The average monthly total of enrollment was 244,153. The average monthly enrollment increased 46 percent from FY 2017 to FY 2018. Totals from previous reports did not include fee-for-service charges that occur when a Medicaid provider administers a HTW-covered service to a patient enrolled in HTW coverage. As a result, the potential provider total is much higher than previously reflected.

In FY 2018, 158,863 clients received a medical service, and the total number of clients served was 172,023. This demonstrates a 30 percent increase in the total number of clients served over FY 2017. Of all those served, nearly 90 percent were women over the age of 21. Clients were most commonly served in the Gulf Coast, Lower South Texas, and Metroplex HHSC regions.

FPP

In FY 2018, 106,224 FPP clients received services. As was the case with HTP, most FPP services were provided in the Gulf Coast, Lower South Texas and Metroplex HHSC regions. Ninety percent of FPP clients were 21 and older.

The report is also required to track cost-savings in the Medicaid program as a result of increased enrollment in both HTP or FPP programs. Medicaid and CHIP costs decrease when a higher number of births are averted.

In FY 2018 an increased enrollment in HTW services averted 13,726 births and saved the state $8.8 million. In the same year, enrollment in FPP programs averted 7,775 births and saved the state $8.2 million.