Alaska is facing serious financial problems and is looking for ways to reduce costs for their Medicaid program while still improving the health of Alaskans. On January 22, 2016, the report “Recommended Medicaid Redesign + Expansion Strategies for Alaska” was submitted to the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) http://dhss.alask.gov.
With the goal to improve the Medicaid program in mind, the consulting team engaged by the DHSS in partnership with the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority http://mhtrust.org has developed and analyzed Medicaid reform options.
The report recommends a package of five interconnected reform initiatives including an initiative dealing with data analytics and information technology. This initiative proposes using the existing HIE and DHSS’s Data Warehouse Decision Support System for this purpose.
This initiative would increase the HIE’s utility by connecting the state’s hospitals, emergency departments, and providers, and then integrating the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program database into the system.
Currently, disparate systems in Alaska’s healthcare environment collect and manage health information. The report recommends that efforts should be made to pull data into a single repository to connect hospitals, providers, and the Medicaid program into a coordinated system.
The report recommends contracting with an advanced data analytics firm that would use the data from the Data Warehouse and the HIE to build a platform to provide detailed program data and decision support tools to providers.
The contractor selected would provide the infrastructure to enable a two way communications platform, provider dashboards, and population management tools between Medicaid providers and DHSS.
The plan also calls for the establishment of a workgroup to expand the use of telemedicine by addressing barriers related to licensure, reimbursement, and to address the coordination of telehealth providers and equipment. The purpose for increasing the use of telemedicine is to increase access to behavioral health, primary care, and specialty care services that are not available in or near the patient’s home community.
The workgroup would discuss the lessons from pilot projects such as the recent initiative piloted in the Mat-Su Borough by Set Free Alaska. This pilot project achieved results in reducing substance use, achieved client satisfaction with mode of treatment, and decreased the no show rate for appointments.
The workgroup due to convene in State FY 2017 will work on actionable recommendations regarding several issues. Discussions on these issues will deal with Medicaid reimbursement and State licensure, and how to update regulations as well as draft legislation that is appropriate for telemedicine.
https://Alaska.gov/HealthyAlaska/Documents/Redesign_Final_Report_%20Jan-22-2016.pdf is the URL for the report “Recommended Medicaid Redesign + Expansion Strategies for Alaska”.