Medicaid Agencies, State Health Departments, and Behavioral Health Authorities; County and Municipal Government Agencies; and Federally Funded Programs

State and Local Government Agencies

Third Horizon partners with state and local government agencies to make informed decisions about health and behavioral health services and payment models.

We bring expertise in strategy and system design, Medicaid policy and financing, and stakeholder engagement. Our advisors also draw on prior experience delivering care to people with complex needs.

From policy decisions to program design, Third Horizon combines community perspectives with data and financial analysis to assess the costs, trade-offs, and likely impacts of different approaches. We work alongside agency leaders to translate those choices into practical implementation strategies that improve access to care and support effective use of public resources.

Key Capabilities

How we support government teams

Advisory Services

Third Horizon partners with agency leaders to respond effectively to changing community needs and legislative requirements. We bring stakeholders together to increase alignment and advise on service and payment models that account for providers’ capacity to deliver care. The team also develops performance measures that help agencies track results and maintain accountability.

Program strategy, design, and implementation
Medicaid and Medicare policy and market analysis
Value-based care design and payment reform
Stakeholder engagement and coalition building
Performance measurement and program evaluation
Managed care strategy and performance

Actuarial Services & Health Services Research

In government, the math is the contract with the public. Rates have to be actuarially sound. Forecasts have to survive legislative scrutiny. Waivers and demonstrations have to be evaluated with evidence a federal partner will accept. Our actuaries and health services researchers do that work, and have done it in states across the country.

Actuarially sound rate development and certification
Managed care capitation and risk adjustment
Program and waiver financial modeling
Health services research and program evaluation
Independent actuarial and methodological review

Data Solutions

Agencies sit on more data than almost anyone. They are rarely staffed to turn it into defensible intelligence. Third Horizon's analysts do that work — assessing what communities need, mapping the markets agencies regulate and contract with, and building the custom analyses that hold up in front of legislators and federal partners.

Community needs assessments
Market landscape analyses
Custom analytic support

Client Story

APM Design

Alternative payment model design and analytics for a state Medicaid agency

A state Medicaid agency engaged Third Horizon, alongside a partner firm, for a multi-year alternative payment model (APM) engagement covering the design, development, and implementation of new APM programs. Third Horizon principal investigators served as the technical leads for each program — providing research, analytics and modeling, episode grouper analysis, risk adjustment and reconciliation calculations, actuarial and quality measurement design, and rural health care approaches, informed by national and international trends in payment reform.

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If you are a state agency, a Medicaid or behavioral health authority, or a federally funded program looking for consulting and analytical partners to design, develop and implement a program, we can help.