Monday, August 4, 2014

CSG/ERC panel on Medicaid innovations


Today’s health committee meeting at the CSG/ERC annual meeting in Baltimore featured updates from NY and CT about what is working in state Medicaid programs, and an update from CMMI on what’s next for the State Innovation Model program. Sen. Terry Gerratana moderated the panel that included Asm. Richard Gottfried (NY), Olivia Puckett (MAPOC) and Clare Wrobel (CMMI).  Asm. Gottfried described NY’s Medicaid program that covers 5 million people and spends over $50 billion each year. 92% of children and adults and 43% of seniors and people with disabilities were in a managed care plan last year. Now NY is planning to expand managed care further with delivery system reforms and a fund to protect safety net providers. Olivia Puckett described CT’s Medicaid innovations including the successful person-centered medical home, Intensive Care Management, OB Pay for Performance, and dental health programs. Clare Wrobel described the SIM grant goals to help states use their levers and engage across payers and programs to improve population health, transform health care delivery and expand value-based payment models. She described the work of the six current test grant states – VT, AR, ME, MA, OR, and MN. She also described some themes from the Model Design and Pre-Test State SIM plans and CMS’s process for awarding Test Grants in the next round. All speakers echoed Clare’s last take-away message – it’s a long journey; this is just the beginning.