The Medicaid Transformation Project, an initiative launched earlier this year by innovation network AVIA and former CMS acting administrator Andy Slavitt, has added seven more hospitals to its ranks.
This makes for a grand total of 24 health systems participating in the project. The systems comprise 342 hospitals and are located in 25 states.
The seven new members are:
- BayCare Health System (Clearwater, Florida)
- Boston Medical Center
- Cedars-Sinai (Los Angeles)
- Carilion Clinic (Roanoke, Virginia)
- Children’s Hospital Colorado (Aurora)
- Jefferson Health (Philadelphia)
- University Hospitals (Cleveland)
The Medicaid Transformation Project aims to pinpoint, develop and scale solutions to assist Medicaid patients. The goal is to let health systems work collaboratively to improve outcomes for vulnerable populations while cutting costs. Over the next two years, the initiative will target four specific challenge areas: behavioral health, substance use disorder, women and infant care and coordinating community care to reduce avoidable emergency department visits.
“By bringing together the nation’s leading health systems, we have a unique opportunity to improve the health of underserved populations in a way that hasn’t been done before,” Slavitt, the chair of the Medicaid Transformation Project, said in a statement. “We’re committed to sustainable, durable solutions that improve care and outcomes for people. We must consider the best existing and new ideas and invest in the right ones.”
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
To start, the health systems will focus on enhancing community care to alter the function of the ED. They will seek to improve linkages from the ED to other parts of the healthcare system such as primary care. In October, the project participants met in Chicago to discuss this challenge. During that meeting, they viewed 10 on-site demonstrations of solutions and gained insight from Medicaid experts like Molly Coye, the former commissioner of health for New Jersey.
In January 2019, the initiative will launch its body of work on behavioral health.
The Medicaid Transformation Project was initially discussed at the AVIA Network Summit in Chicago in May, but little information was revealed at that time. More details, as well as the names of the first 17 health system participants, were announced in August.
Photo: eyegelb, Getty Images
