Arkansas Payment Improvement Initiative: The First Year

Arkansas payers and providers actively participated in the design of both the episodic payment and patient-centered medical home (PCMH) models the state has recently implemented. We’ve written about each of these components of the multi-payer Arkansas Payment Improvement Initiative (APII) in our previous Health Affairs Blog posts.

The state’s fragmented and largely rural provider environment presents an important test for a novel episodic payment model that may, if successful, have broader applicability in other states sharing a similar health care landscape. Fourteen episodes have now been launched and provider participation is mandatory. While our first posting goes into greater detail on the nuances of Arkansas’ approach to episodes, we provide the following brief summary here to add context to this discussion.