The New York State Department of Health (DOH) recently held a meeting of the Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (DSRIP) program’s Project Approval and Oversight Panel (PAOP). The PAOP is a multi-stakeholder advisory group comprised of members of the public, including patient and community advocates, policy organizations, public figures, and representatives from DOH and other New York State agencies. Performing provider systems (PPSs) are on track to meet the overall DSRIP goal of reducing avoidable hospitalizations by 25% by March 2020, according to DOH. To date, PPSs have reduced avoidable readmissions by 20%, avoidable admissions by 21%, and related per-member per-year costs by 15%. Many PPSs have also demonstrated improvement on specific behavioral health, substance use disorder, and chronic disease measures. To date, PPSs have distributed 68% of earned funds to partner organizations.
United Hospital Fund (UHF) staff reviewed promising DSRIP practices that PPSs believe are linked to successful outcomes. Overarching themes included investments in core infrastructure (e.g., patient-centered medical home implementation), addressing social determinants of health, implementing care management and care coordination, and addressing behavioral health needs. UHF will publish a report this summer with promising practices from all 25 PPSs.
DOH will request comments and feedback on a concept paper that will be released this summer that will propose a program based on promising DSRIP practices and further development of the Medicaid program’s value-based payment strategy. DOH will submit a draft renewal application to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) this fall. After incorporating CMS feedback, DOH will then submit a final renewal application for the DSRIP program.