In general, the State Innovation Models (SIM) Initiative provides financial and technical support to develop state-led, multi-payer healthcare payment and service delivery models. CMS has just announced the recipients of Round Two awards for the SIM Initiative.
Over $665 million will support states that are ready to implement their State Healthcare Innovation plans that describe how each state is going to use available regulatory and policy levers, how the state plans to align quality measures, leverage the adoption and implementation of health IT and HIEs, plus how they plan to evaluate innovation efforts.
In Round Two, eleven Model Test Awards were awarded to the states to provide financial and technical support over a four year period to test and evaluate multi-payer health system transformation models. The Model Test Awards went to New York, Iowa, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, Washington, and Rhode Island.
For example, the State of Colorado will receive $65 million to provide access to integrated primary care and behavioral health services in 400 primary care practices and community mental health centers. A partnership will also be established between public health, behavioral health, and primary care sectors. There are also plans to expand information technology efforts to include telehealth.
Iowa will receive $43.1 million to work with a data analytics contractor so that provider organizations will have consistent and usable data to transform their practice from volume-based reimbursement to value-based reimbursement.
New York State with $99.9 million plans to adopt a tiered Advanced Primary Care (APC) model for primary care. The state plans to integrate APC with population health through public health consultants that will work with regional Population Health Improvement Program Contractors. The goal is to develop a common scorecard, shared quality metrics, enhanced analytics, and provide state-funded health IT to help exchange clinical data and an all-payer database.
Rhode Island will receive $20 million to augment the health IT infrastructure in the state to include an all-payer claims database, information on statewide healthcare quality measurements, patient engagement tools, and state data management and analytics.
In another SIM category, Model Design Awards for $42 million will support 21 entities including 17 states, three territories and the District of Columbia. The goal is to engage a diverse group of stakeholders, including public and commercial payers, providers, and consumers to create or further refine a State Health Care Innovation Plan.
The states awarded Model Design Awards are Arizona, Utah, Pennsylvania, Maryland, California, Illinois, New Jersey, Puerto, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Kentucky, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.
For more information, go to http://innovation.cms.gov.