United Hospital Fund of New York

In 2015, New York State will begin two major health care initiatives. Led primarily by major hospital systems and their community-based partners, the Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (DSRIP) program is a Medicaid payment reform initiative that aims to provide incentives for coordinated care, reduce hospitalizations, and improve health outcomes through a collaborative approach to care.

The State Health Innovation Plan (SHIP) has similar goals but focuses on primary care and includes the commercially insured market. While these initiatives offer New York an opportunity to improve its payment and delivery systems, a number of challenges remain, including limited funding for policy analysis of these reform projects. In 2015, NYHealth awarded United Hospital Fund (UHF) a grant to work collaboratively on an independent analysis of the issues surrounding the DSRIP and SHIP implementation process to help inform policymakers and other stakeholders.

Under this grant, NYHealth and UHF jointly identified emerging issues associated with DSRIP and SHIP; conducted policy research and analysis; and developed policy options for payment and delivery reform within the context of DSRIP and SHIP. Specifically, UHF worked with NYHealth to develop four issue briefs on topics such as addressing payment reform and value-based payment approaches for both Medicaid and commercial insurance; creating integrated health care delivery systems; and ensuring the needs of special populations—such as children and the elderly—are met in these policies. UHF and NYHealth held a statewide conference for policymakers, stakeholders, and analysts to review and consider the policy options developed through this grant.

Read the reports associated with this grant:

You Get What You Pay for: Measuring Quality in Value-Based Payment for Children’s Health Care

Capitation and the Evolving Roles of Providers and Payers in New York

Performance of New York’s Accountable Care Organizations in Year 2 of the Medicare Shared Savings Program

Setting the Stage for Payment Reform: Updating New York’s Regulations on Risk Transfers Between Health Plans and Providers