Last February, the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH) http://dhmh.maryland.gov and the Health Services Cost Review Commission (HSCRC) www.hscrc.state.md.us were looking for proposals to develop “Regional Partnerships for Health System Transformation” to support the state’s new All-Payer Model.
The State of Maryland and the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) http://innovation.cms.gov agreed to modernize the state’s all-payer rate setting system for hospital services. This initiative enables the state to adopt new and innovative policies aimed at improving care, population health, and limiting the growth of hospital costs.
The specific plans are to focus on particular patient populations such as patients with multiple chronic conditions and high resource use, frail elders with support requirements, Medicare and Medicaid dual eligibles with high resource needs, and then the plan is to develop a strategy to improve overall population health in the region over the long term.
In order to accomplish their goals, the state is developing regional partnerships to help hospitals meet the needs of the all-payer model by collaborating on analytics, targeting services based on patient and population needs, and developing care coordination and population health improvement approaches.
On May 13, 2015, HRSRC gave their final approval to fund eight of eleven proposals totaling $2.5 million. The awardees are:
- Regional Planning Community Health Partnership for $400,000 with Johns Hopkins Hospital
- Baltimore Health System Transformation Partnership for $400,00 with the University of Maryland Medical Center
- Trivergent Health Alliance with Western Maryland Health System for $133,334, Frederick Regional Health System for $133,333, and Meritus Medical Center for $133,333
- Bay Area Transformation Partnership for $400,000 with Anne Arundel Medical Center
- NexusMontgomery for $300,000 with Holy Cross Hospital
- Howard County Regional Partnership for Health system Transformation for $200,000 with Howard County General Hospital
- University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Health and Hospital of Cecil County Partnership for $200,000 with the University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake
- Southern Maryland Regional Coalition for Health system Transformation for $200,000 with Doctors Community Hospital
The awardees will also be expected to identify a sustainable funding source to finance the implementation and operation of the model after the planning period. Awardees are required to submit an interim report to DHMH and HSCRC by September 1, 2015 with a final report due December 1, 2015.
DHMH and HSCRC are offering technical support through the Chesapeake Regional Information System for our Patients (CRISP) http://crisphealth.org to help awardees meet their goals, conduct statewide and regional educational sessions, share lessons learned among participating grantees and other hospitals, and ensure that planning activities are consistent with statewide infrastructure activities.