Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick announced that the state is providing $14.5 million to go to 57 hospitals across the state. The funding will be used to help hospitals including critical access hospitals and community health centers to transition to integrated delivery systems. The funding was included in the FY 13 state budget and the awards are supported by federal matching funds.
The grantees received funding to support one of the following priority areas:
- To fully integrate delivery systems, the plan is to develop and use the medical home concept in the community, integrate physical health and behavioral health, and provide integrated acute and post-acute networks
- Study alternatives to fee-for-service payments to enable the acceptance of global or alternative payments and also improve data analytics and quality performance measurement capabilities
- Improve health outcomes and quality by establishing a chronic disease registry, develop and implement a system to manage complex care for high risk populations, redirect emergency department use to community health centers when feasible, and reduce variations in inpatient care for patients with high risk conditions
- Design, implement, and document enrollment outreach and healthcare access projects for individuals who may be eligible for public subsidized and non-subsidized health insurance programs and who may require individualized support due to geography, ethnicity, race, culture, immigration, disability, or disease status
- Provide a detailed plan for consulting services to study how to make the provision of care to MassHealth members more effective and cost-efficient
Some of the larger grantees include:
- Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center ($206,980) to redirect non-emergent emergency department use to community health centers
- Athol Hospital ($500,000) and Wing Memorial Hospital and Medical Centers ($508,767) to work on medical home transformation
- Anna Jacques Hospital ($285,779) to establish a chronic disease registry
- Martha’s Vineyard Hospital ($500,000) to implement primary care based system for complex care management
- Noble Hospital ($272861) to integrate an acute and post-acute network across the continuum of care
For more information, go to www.mass.gov/eohhs.