The state of Rhode Island on November 6th released the state’s draft “State Healthcare Innovation Plan”. When the plan is finalized, it will be submitted to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation’s State Innovation Model Design Program and will be known as “Healthy Rhode Island”.
In 2010, the state received $11.28 million in grants from ARRA that went to the Rhode Island Quality Institute (RIQI) an independent, non-profit organization to help improve healthcare for all state residents. Also, the Regional Extension Center (REC) received $6,000,000 to create and fund the REC to provide primary care providers with technical assistance and help them achieve meaningful use.
RIQI is working to recruit and train providers in the use of the state HIE known as “CurrentCare”, on how to obtain a direct messaging account, how to subscribe to hospital alert services so that providers will be notified when a patient is admitted to a hospital or ED, and how to integrate EHR data with “CurrentCare”.
At the end of September 2013, CurrentCare had enrolled 319,000 residents with a total of 345,000 projected to be enrolled by the end of the year. There are multiple data sharing partners who contribute data to “CurrentCare” including ten hospitals sending ADT feeds, seven hospitals, two large clinical laboratories, 28 medical practices, two community mental health centers, seven large chain pharmacies, and one large diagnostic imaging center.
In addition, the draft plan outlines the progress that the state’s integrated child health information system known as KIDSNET has made. The system captures information on all children born in the state as well as from children born out of state who see a Rhode Island participating doctor or receive services from a program participating in KIDSNET. Information is obtained on immunizations, laboratory reports, newborn developmental risk assessments, home visiting, and birth defects.
The state is building an All Payer Claims Database (APCD) as a partnership initiative administered by an interagency workgroup. APCD will track individuals across insurance carriers and measure utilization and spending.
The interagency workgroup submitted a Request for Information (RFI) and a Request for Proposal (RFP) and has also hired vendors to administer the APCD. Two of the vendors include Freedman Healthcare and Onpoint Health Data.
In recognition of the need for increased interoperability, the State created the Unified health Infrastructure Project (UHIP) designed as a single technical platform to support the health Benefits Exchange, plus handle Medicaid and other state human service program eligibility.
Deloitte the technical vendor chosen for UHIP has completed user testing, approved functionality, and accomplished the initial deployment. The initial phase includes information on HealthSourceRI and Medicaid (RiteCare) eligibility for the expanded population.
Outreach and communication on HealthSourceRI and Medicaid expansion are underway via mass media and targeted marketing approaches. The state is in the final stages of creating a plan around metrics and evaluation related to the continued use of UHIP.
Go to www.healthcare.ri.gov/healthyri/resources/ri_ship_Comment_draft.pdf to view the full draft report “State Healthcare Innovation Plan”.