R.I. receives $20M to test plan to improve health

PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island will receive up to $20 million to test the state’s Health Care Innovation Plan.
The federal funding comes as part of U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ State Innovation Models initiative.
Created as part of the Affordable Care Act, SIM grants encourage states to generate health care payment and service delivery models that promote better quality care at lower cost for beneficiaries of federal programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program.

“We are committed to partnering with Rhode Island to advance the goals we all share: better care, smarter spending, and, ultimately, healthier people,” U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia M. Burwell said in a statement about the funding. “We’re seeing states do some very innovative things when it comes to improving the ways we deliver care, pay providers and distribute information. These funds will support Rhode Island in integrating and coordinating the many elements of health care – including Medicaid, Medicare, public health and private health care delivery systems – to the benefit of patients, businesses, and taxpayers alike.”

U.S. Sens. Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse and U.S. Reps. James R. Langevin and David N. Cicilline applauded the awarding of the grant.

In a joint press release, the congressmen said Rhode Island was among the states previously selected for the “designing” phase of the SIM initiative, during which recipients prepared a comprehensive Health Care Innovation Plan for reforming health care payment and delivery. Rhode Island is now among 11 states to receive the second round of SIM funding, to implement its plan across the state’s health care system. Rhode Island and CMS will now work together over the next four years to align health care quality measures, make better use of health information technology and information exchanges, and evaluate health care innovation efforts in the state.

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Nationwide, 28 states, three territories and the District of Columbia will receive more than $665 million in Affordable Care Act funding to design and test health care payment and service delivery models that will improve health care quality and lower costs.

“Rhode Island health care leaders have worked hard on reforms that improve the quality of care and can lower costs for Rhode Island patients, and this award shows their work is paying off,” the congressmen said in their prepared remarks. “Not only will this funding improve our health care system here in Rhode Island, it will ultimately help us lower health care costs that burden our economy. We congratulate Lt. Gov. [Elizabeth H.] Roberts, Rhode Island’s Executive Office of Health and Human Services, and everyone who worked on these important reforms and look forward to seeing them implemented.”

They also said the Ocean State has been leading the way in several areas of health care reform, pointing to initiatives such as the Rhode Island Quality Institute’s creation of a health information exchange called CurrentCare, which links all Rhode Island hospitals and health care providers around the state to better coordinate patient care, and HealthSource RI, the health insurance marketplace.

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