What Happened?
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently announced the recipients of its State Innovation Models Initiative grants under the program’s second round of funding. The grants totaled more than $665 million to be distributed over the next four years in support of state-led health insurance delivery models.
Goal
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is providing more than $665 million to 32 recipients over the next four years as part of its State Innovations Model initiative. In the second round of funding, the grants were awarded to healthcare initiatives:
- Run by the state
- Offering multi-player healthcare payment and service delivery models
- Improving health system performance
- Increasing quality of care
- Decreasing cost for Medicare, Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program beneficiaries
The grants included both model design awardees and model test awardees. Model design awardees are states or entities that are currently creating plans and strategies for their statewide health transformation plans. Model test awardees are states that are graduating from the design phase into the testing and implementation stage of their innovation plans.
- $43 million in Model Design awards: 21 state awardees are continuing to design and refine State Health Care Innovation Plans. Recipients will have 12 months to submit finalized plans to CMS.
- $622 million in Model Test awards: 11 state recipients have fully developed State Health Care Innovation Plans ready to be implemented. CMS works with Model Test awardees for four years.
Round One and Round Two of funding has enabled 34 states, three territories and the District of Columbia to work on comprehensive state-based health system innovations that will service 61 percent of the U.S. population.
Colorado
Colorado received $65 million from the CMS to help create a coordinated, accountable system of care to improve the integration of behavioral and physical health services to state residents. Colorado had already received a model design grant in 2013 aiding the state in:
- Creating a coordinated, accountable system of care that gives residents access to integrated primary care and behavioral health
- Leveraging the power of the public health system to achieve broader population health goals and support delivery of care
- Using outcomes-based payments to enable transformation
- Engaging individuals in their care
The next round of funding will be used to accelerate the deployment of care delivery transformation and integration.
New York
New York received $100 million from the CMS for testing and implementing its State Health Innovation Plan statewide. The funding will be put toward:
- Increasing access to primary care
- Integrating primary care services into long-term care, behavioral health, specialty care and community supports
- Creating a continuum of care linking physicians and community-based resources
- Increasing transparency for patients, payers and providers to support more informed healthcare choices
- Improving the quality, efficiency and results of all care provided
Furthermore, the federal funding will help New York work toward its Health Prevention Agenda as well as promote and adopt Medicaid reform efforts.
Innovating Health Care
Gov1 has reported on a growing number of federal healthcare grants working to improve residential health and access to care.