 It is a great privilege
to serve as Acting Director of the Health Care Authority (HCA), and I am looking
forward to continuing the innovative work of Healthier Washington.
I’m already very familiar with the initiative’s strategies. While director of the HCA’s Public Employees
Benefits Division, we aligned with the value-based purchasing strategy to
introduce to state employees two networks under our Accountable Care Program
(ACP). This Uniform Medical Plan Plus
product is already demonstrating results in terms of quality of care and
patient experience. We embedded the
evidence-based principles of shared decision making into the ACP contracts and tied
those contracts to 11 clinical health measures from the Statewide Common Set of
Measures.
As acting director I will be able to support Healthier
Washington even more broadly. We will:
- Continue our momentum to
achieve full integration of physical and behavioral health care for
Washington Apple Health (Medicaid) clients statewide by January 2020.
- Continue to support providers
in their practice transformation efforts.
- Collaborate on achieving a
healthier Washington through Accountable Communities of Health and the
Medicaid Transformation Demonstration.
I know the initiative has an amazing track record of success
and even greater gains for the people of our state. I look forward to conversations
about how to sustain the gains we’ve made, accelerate on our momentum, and
recognize where we need strong partnerships to help us achieve a healthier
Washington.
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The final versions of the Project Plan Template and the Supplemental Workbook are now available on the Healthier Washington website.
The updated Project Plan Template reflects input from the Accountable Communities of Health (ACH), stakeholders, and the general public. Revisions include refining requirements, modifying the level of detail required, increasing the word count in several sections, and adding detailed submission instructions.
The Project Plan Template is a document that models the format ACHs must use for their Medicaid Transformation Demonstration (Demonstration) Project Plan.
The Project Plan is a blueprint for the critical Medicaid transformation work each Accountable Community of Health (ACH) will undertake with community partners.
Independent Assessor selected to support the Demonstration
Following a competitive procurement process, HCA has selected Myers and Stauffer as the apparently successful bidder to serve as the Independent Assessor (IA). The IA will review and score project plans, and assess ACH progress in the implementation of their project portfolios. Myers and Stauffer’s experience with state Medicaid programs includes those with Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (DSRIP) programs.
Newly updated Demonstration resources:
For more information about the Demonstration, please visit our website.
On Friday, July 21, HCA issued a
value-based payment survey for providers. The survey will assist HCA in
tracking progress toward the statewide goal of paying for value-based care,
rather than paying for volume of care.
HCA invites a variety of providers
across Washington State, including hospitals, health systems, clinics, tribal
health care, behavioral health care, and others, to participate. The intent is
to collect one response per organization and that administrators, rather than
individual clinicians, fill out the survey on behalf of their organization.
The survey was developed with
advice from HCA’s Medicaid Value-based Payment (MVP) Action Team, whose members
represent a variety of provider organizations, Accountable Communities of
Health, and Medicaid managed care organizations (MCOs). A similar
version of the survey was released to MCOs in June.
The survey is open until August
25.
If you are interested in participating, contact PayingForValue@hca.wa.gov.
Find out more:
Visit the paying
for value web page
New Demonstration protocols have been approved by CMS. Public comments submitted in April during the public comment period were incorporated before the final drafts were sent to CMS. CMS revisions and approval were the last steps in finalizing these documents. Read more.
The Healthier Washington quarterly webinar held July 6 focused on ways the state is connecting providers to resources that will help them achieve meaningful practice transformation. Several resources mentioned in this webinar are now available. Read more.
 Family gains an ally on life journey
Janet walked into the medical center with her daughter Sarah who needed a physical to sign up for fall sports. Janet didn't know about the $25 cost and their family didn't have the money to spend. The front desk referred Janet to Molly Morris, a Community Health Worker. Molly quickly learned that Janet and her daughters had been living out of a truck.
"We will be going on a journey together," Molly told Janet once she had a full picture of the family's situation. Molly helped Janet's daughter get her sports physical, and assisted her family to getting housing.
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