On January 8th, New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo released the document “Building on Success” describing some of the healthcare needs for New York state in 2014-2015. The document reports that the Medicaid Redesign Team (MRT) in the State is increasing Medicaid funding. This funding is consistent with the spending cap and reflects the continuation of the Medicaid spending cap enacted in 2011-2012.
The budget provides for capital funding for targeted investments to complement projects supported by the Medicaid waiver currently pending approval by the Federal government. By the end of 2014-2015, the MRT will have generated over $17 billion in Federal savings. The Medicaid waiver will allow the State to reinvest up to $10 billion of that savings into the transformation of the state’s healthcare delivery system.
A cost neutral package of new MRT initiatives indicates that savings were achieved from targeted Medicaid initiatives to eliminate fraud and abuse, from improving benefits design, obtaining greater controls on pharmaceuticals, and complying with the Federal law that requires spousal support.
To support emergency preparedness, the State will invest another $75 million to go towards a statewide interoperable communications system in 2014-2015. The system will include a new program that will distribute $10 million in annual formula-driven grants to go to counties to support ongoing operations of public safety communication centers.
The State seeks to have Regional Health Improvement Collaboratives (RHIC) function as neutral conveners, facilitators, and catalysts for improvement. All of the key healthcare stakeholders in a region such as practitioners, hospitals, nursing homes, community health centers, health plans, and patients need to work together to coordinate activities to transform the healthcare system. The RHICs also enables stakeholders to collectively address issues related to prevention, access, cost, quality, and population health.
New York plans to develop uniform data that can be queried and adjusted at the regional level to assess population health, cost drivers, hot spots, and vulnerabilities among providers, measure performance, with the results to be published to educate and engage consumers.
The state is also going to develop a Genomic Medicine Network and has earmarked $105 million for the State University of New York at Buffalo to partner with the NY Genome Center in New York City. The Network will connect the medical community in New York City with the computational infrastructure at the University of Buffalo and the research community at Rowell Park Cancer Institute.