Valuation Award Announced for Nine-County Region
Adirondack Health Institute (AHI) and its Performing Provider System (PPS) partners have the opportunity to earn up to $186,715,496 in performance-based payments from the New York State Department of Health (DOH) under the Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (DSRIP) Program’s Project Plan. Funding will be used to increase the level of health care service integration necessary to better manage population health and embrace payment reform in nine Upstate New York counties. The AHI PPS is one of 25 awardees in the state.
“Our region has been recognized for its strong partnerships and we’re pleased by the state’s investment in health care system transformation and support of our regional initiatives,” said Cathy Homkey, CEO, AHI. “The DOH has announced the maximum award our region can earn. This number is based on our ability to hit each milestone.”
The AHI PPS spans nearly 11,000 square miles, affecting approximately 144,000 attributed lives. The project will be implemented by partners in Clinton, Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Hamilton, Saratoga, St. Lawrence, Warren, and Washington counties. AHI established four Regional Health Innovation Teams led by experts in health care transformation from primary care, acute care, and behavioral health settings, and each team includes representation from the full care continuum.
“The geography requires strong localized planning units to develop plans and improve performance,” said Homkey. “We believe this structure will be essential to implementing rapid-cycle change processes.”
The teams solicited partners, set goals, and developed projects which formed the basis of an application submitted to the DOH in December 2014.
“DSRIP provides our region with the opportunity to redesign the system of care to improve the health of the nearly 700,000 residents of our nine-county service area,” said AHI’s VP of Health System Transformation, Colleen Florio, Ph.D. “The recent funding is focused on Medicaid, but the entire region benefits from dollars provided to support population health.”
Payments to providers will be based on improvements in patient outcomes, utilizing incentives to get providers to work together to offer preventive, rather than reactive care; integrate behavioral- and primary care services; offer more home and community-based services; and address the social determinants of health, such as nutrition, housing and employment.
Each region has selected projects to develop. In the nine-county AHI region, the team focused on eleven projects.
“Four of the eleven projects are behavioral health focused,” said Florio. “A majority of emergency-department visits are related to, or complicated by, behavioral health conditions, thus, the Incentive Payment program places a large emphasis on better serving individuals with behavioral health care needs.”
New York State is re-investing nearly $6.5 billion in health care delivery system redesign statewide. The goals are to reduce avoidable hospital use by 25 percent over five years and ensure that New Yorkers achieve high-quality care, better health outcomes and lower cost. AHI was awarded a 1-year Project Design Planning Grant ($891,000) in July 2014, and received an additional $1.2 million in planning dollars in early 2015. The funds were earmarked to develop the Performing Provider System’s governance and infrastructure, and to plan 11 projects in concert with partner organizations.
Regional DSRIP contacts:
- DSRIP hospital communications leads:
- Adirondack Health: Joe Riccio, [email protected]
- Glens Falls Hospital: Paul Scimeca, [email protected]
- Hudson Headwaters Health Network: Howard Nelson, [email protected]
- Nathan Littauer Hospital: Geoff Peck, [email protected]
- St Lawrence Health System: Susan Hodgson, [email protected]
- UVM Health Network – CVPH: Michele Powers, [email protected]
- DSRIP steering committee members:
- Citizen’s Advocates/Northstar Behavioral Health Services: Susan Delehanty, [email protected]
- Essex County Public Health: Linda Beers, [email protected]
- Fort Hudson Nursing Home: Andy Cruikshank, [email protected]
- Washington County Public Health: Patty Hunt, [email protected]
