MACPAC report on Medicaid touts DSRIP, warns about behavioral and dental health

As the 50th anniversary of Medicaid approaches, a new report claims there is much work to do on the state-federal program, from finding sustainable hospital payment reforms to tackling the problem of poor oral health, according to the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission, or MACPAC.

But it is the five-year-old Delivery System Reform Incentive Payments program that ranked highest In MACPAC’s annual report to Congress on the progress and problems in Medicaid.

Authorized under Section 115 waivers, the DSRIP program supports provider-led efforts to reform Medicaid care and promote population health. About  $30 billion has been dedicated to DSRIP programs across seven states, including California, Massachusetts, New York and Texas, with payments linked to specific achievements, such as quality reporting or, more ambitiously, outcomes of Medicaid patients. More than 17 million patients are covered under Medicaid or CHIP.

“The DSRIP approach, if taken to scale, has the potential to fundamentally change Medicaid’s role from financing medical care to driving system change toward value and improved health outcomes,” wrote MACPAC chair by Diane Rowland, who is also executive vice president of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.