New York State Receives Passing Grades On Its First DSRIP Report Card

June 11, 2018

 

Earlier this month the New York State Department of Health released the first results of its recently adopted Medicaid redesign efforts, the Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (“DSRIP”), in four core areas: (1) metric performance, (2) success of projects, (3) total Medicaid spending and (4) managed care expenditures.   The passing scores stem from the collaborative efforts of the Performing Provider Systems comprised of New York hospitals, providers and other key stakeholders.

In April 2014, New York State and the federal government agreed to a DSRIP framework, pumping approximately $8 billion in state health care savings to target Medicaid reforms. The goal of the DSRIP waiver is to reduce patient hospital usage by 25% over 5 years while improving patient-centered care. The program includes $6.42 billion for DSRIP Planning Grants, Provider Incentive Payments, and administrative costs.

The Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services did find, however, that New York still needs to show improvement in certain areas, including preventable hospital readmissions and emergency room visits as well as access to timely appointments.

Speaking on the results, Donna Frescatore, the New York State Medicaid Director, said “[a] passing grade on all four of the milestones proves that we are making monumental progress toward improving care for millions of New Yorkers….While we are on a clear path to success, our work is far from over. In the months and years ahead, we will shift our focus toward improving performance metrics and health outcomes as we work to change the culture of health care.”

Even though New York received passing scores on its first report card, the state must continue to demonstrate improvement going forward to avoid financial penalties associated with failing to meet the requisite benchmarks.  It will be interesting to see if New York meets the 25% hospital usage reduction by March 31, 2020, the date the DSRIP waiver ends.

The full report can be found here.