Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy, Inc.

New York State’s Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (DSRIP) program seeks to fundamentally transform the State’s Medicaid program with the primary goal of reducing avoidable hospital use by 25%.

To accomplish this, DSRIP allocated more than $6 billion to Performing Provider Systems (PPSs) across the State, which coordinates care through networks comprising hospitals, community health centers, provider practices, and community-based organizations (CBOs). Many CBOs have long-standing, trusted community relationships with and provide critical services to the population DSRIP is designed to engage. Although their services contribute to the success of PPSs, CBOs often report that they have not been meaningfully engaged in the DSRIP planning process. In 2015, NYHealth awarded a grant to the Schuyler Center for Analysis and Advocacy, Inc., (SCAA), as fiscal sponsor to Medicaid Matters New York (MMNY), to increase understanding of and build capacity for CBOs and safety-net providers to engage in DSRIP throughout New York.

Under this grant, MMNY created and disseminated tools and information for CBOs to better position themselves in the DSRIP transformation. Specifically, MMNY informed upstate regions about the DSRIP PPS process; gathered information from PPSs to share promising practices; and generated and advanced policy recommendations at the State level. MMNY will conducted a statewide survey to determine the readiness of CBOs to engage in DSRIP, working with and connecting regions that already had well-developed Medicaid consumer advocacy efforts and those that did not. MMNY selected three PPS regions to provide in-depth technical assistance to grow a sustainable infrastructure of CBOs involved in DSRIP. From this work, MMNY produced a final report that included policy recommendations focused on ensuring safety-net providers and CBOs are included in the PPSs as the State intended.