The Massachusetts “Delivery System Transformation Initiatives” (DSTI) has made $628 million available in joint state and federal funding to provide incentive payments for safety net hospitals over three years.
The hospital systems participating in the funding include Boston Medical Center, Cambridge Health Alliance, Holyoke Medical, Lawrence General Hospital, Mercy Medical Center, Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital, and Steward Carney Hospital.
The seven hospital systems participating in DSTI were selected because they serve the highest percentages of Medicaid patients and lowest percentages of commercially-insured patients in Massachusetts.
The safety net hospitals will undertake projects to:
- Develop a fully integrated delivery system to include converting primary care practices into Patient Centered Medical Homes, integrating physical and behavioral healthcare, and developing integrated networks linking providers via EHRs
- Implement innovative care models to improve the quality of care and health outcomes to include building electronic chronic disease registries, new care management programs for patients with complex problems, and provide better coordination for patients when they leave the hospital
- Develop and implement alternative payment models to include ACOs, plus pilot alternative payment models for low-income patents, and develop systems to monitor providers on how they are dealing with healthcare quality and costs
- Develop population-focused health outcome improvements by developing projects aimed at collecting and reporting key measures that with enable the Commonwealth to track and assess the impact of the initiatives on patients and their healthcare
