In 2013, the State of Maine www.maine.gov was awarded a three year $33 million State Innovation Model (SIM) grant from the CMS Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) https://innovation.cms.gov. Over the last three years, SIM has partnered with providers in both the physical and behavioral health fields, public and private insurers, data and system analysts, purchasers, workforce developers, and Maine consumers.
In 2016, the SIM program was granted a No-Cost Extension (NCE) to continue the work for an additional year with a focus on the prevention of diabetes and avoiding hospital readmissions. NCE funds will continue to be used to expand the National Diabetes Prevention Program https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/prevention/index.html dashboard tracking individuals who have used the program and then provides updates.
The Maine Developmental and Disabilities Council www.maineddc.org is working with individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (I/DD) who also have or at risk for diabetes. A targeted effort will highlight preventative diabetes care, identify pain in individuals with diabetes and I/DD, and strategies to manage diabetes in I/DD populations.
The remaining activities for the extended 4th year of SIM also includes behavioral health and health IT, predictive analytics, workforce development, data focused learning, and further development of collaborative and accountable communities.
The Maine behavioral health community is continuing to coordinate care for the high cost high need patients served. MaineCare www.maine.gov/dhhs/mainecare.shtml continues to expand their behavioral health homes program which has resulted in an extended contract with HealthInfoNet to continue to complete EMR connections and provide assistance.
Over the SIM’s first three years, there was an integrated health workforce development component focused on mental health. This component involved developing specialized curriculums and informational resources for health home coordinators, peers, and families that are part of the behavioral health home team.
The use of technology continues to show promise. The state is ready to expand the use of technology by developing a predicative analytics pilot. The pilot will provide the state’s Department of Health and Human Services www.maine.gov/dhhs information on MaineCare members who are likely to become the highest service utilizers.
Go to www.maine.gov/dhhs/sim for the full report “SIM Year Four-2017” released by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services.