Medicaid Transformation Update

The Partnering Providers within each of the six, county Collaboratives have been hard at work the last couple of months putting together their Collaborative Transformation Plans, which were due on June 29th. These Plans provide a framework of regional goals and activities related to project areas and priority areas BHT selected for our Medicaid Transformation work.

Next, the Partnering Providers from the behavioral health and primary care settings will be responsible for creating an individual Partnering Provider Transformation Plan. It is intended that the Partnering Provider Plans will be driven by the framework established in their Collaborative’s Plan. These individual Plans will specify the changes each Partnering Provider plans to make to their practice; detailing their strategies/activities, goals, timeline, and budget for activities within the project areas of bi-directional integration, chronic disease, and opioids.

The BHT staff and consultant team, along with volunteers from our technical councils, will review Plans this summer and provide feedback to the Collaboratives and Partnering Providers. 

BHT Staff are also hard at work on our Semi-Annual Report (SAR), the first of the bi-annual reports BHT sends to the Health Care Authority (HCA) each year to earn our region’s Pay-for-Performance dollars. In the SAR, we give an update to the HCA on any completed activities, or changes we’ve made to meet the milestones laid out in our Project Portfolio, as well as narrative updates specific to Domain 1 activities, Integrated Managed Care (IMC), and Health Equity. BHT will complete this process twice a year for the rest of the Transformation period.

In related news, BHT has been asked by the HCA to support the regional Medicaid behavioral health providers in their transition to Integrated Managed Care (IMC) in January of 2019. The BHT region will be working with four plans; Molina, Amerigroup, and CHPW for Integrated Managed Care (IMC) payers, and Coordinated Care who serves foster children.

We have convened three different workgroups that will meet monthly to address the work; IT/EHR, Early Warning System, and Communications. The IT/EHR and Early Warning System had their first meetings at the end of June, with excellent discussion around billing and warning indicators specific to our region. We are fortunate that our Community Voices Council has agreed to take on the communications work and develop a plan for the transition and individuals who may have to switch Apple Health Plans. 

BHT is honored to have been asked and welcomes the opportunity to support our behavioral health providers through continued system change. We have set up an IMC specific web page for the group with information, resources, and happenings.