Colorado awarded SIM Funding!

“The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) has awarded Colorado with $65 million in State Innovation Model (SIM) funding to create a coordinated, accountable system of care that gives Coloradans access to integrated primary care and behavioral health. Click here to view the press release for the announcement.

Workgroup progress:
HIT, Data and Quality Measures: The group gained consensus on the following two pediatric measures to be included in SIM: (1) Postpartum depression screening, and (2) Developmental screening. The group has been evaluating these measures from a data and cost perspective. A review of public health data integration will occur as a next phase of work, and a meeting with the Local Public Health Agencies is planned early in 2015. A follow-up meeting of the HIT, Data & Quality Measures group is also planned before the end of the year.

Payers, Purchasers and Payment Reform: The group had a successful kick-off in November and is currently working on a schedule for regular meetings in the new year.

Population Health and Consumer Engagement: Joe Sammen from CCMU will be replacing Gretchen Hammer as co-lead with Dr. Larry Wolk, with Gretchen Hammer's transition to the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Finance. A meeting is being scheduled for January, 2015.

Service Delivery and Practice Transformation: Currently, the group is focusing on the development of practice milestones. It has reviewed the Comprehensive Primary Care initiative milestones, which will serve as a foundation of SIM milestones development, as well as looked at other relevant resources (i.e. Transforming Clinical Practices Initiative). Over the next month, the group will be facilitating targeted discussions around the milestones, including: pediatric-specific considerations and integrating primary care into a CMHC setting.

The SIM Team would like to extend its gratitude to those who submitted a post-meeting evaluation survey for the SIM conference on 11/20. We appreciate the valuable feedback we received from you. Please use the following link to download a PowerPoint presentation that illustrates the results of the survey: Click here to download the PowerPoint.”  [Source: Colorado SIM]