Maine

Maine has had an impressive history and continued commitment to improve the health of its citizens through strengthening its system of primary care across the State. In the fall of 2007, the Maine Legislature convened the Commission to Study Primary Care Practice to examine the issues facing primary care and ways to stabilize and support it. In the 2008-2009 State Health Plan, the Governor’s Office for Health Policy and Finance identified the need to promote primary care as the foundation for our state’s health system.

Formed in 2003 and incorporated in 2006, Maine Quality Counts (QC) has provided leadership, advocacy and support for improving primary care in partnership with the State through several multi-stakeholder initiatives including PCMH learning collaboratives, a Multi-payer Advanced Primary Care Practice program, Coordinated Care Teams, Quality Counts for Kids, and Integrated Behavioral-Physical Health, to name a few. Maine Quality Counts, as one of the State’s designated partners in the State Innovation Model (SIM) Initiative, is working to ensure all State health improvement measures build upon the success of these and other established PCMH programs. Quality Counts is leading the learning collaborative to implement the new Maine Behavioral Health Home Initiative. 

CHIPRA: 
Yes
MAPCP: 
Yes
Dual Eligible: 
No
2703 Health Home: 
Yes
CPCi: 
No
SIM Awards: 
Yes
PCMH in QHP: 
No
Legislative PCMH Initiative: 
No
Private Payer Program: 
Yes
State Facts: 
Population:
1,312,200
Uninsured Population:
10%
Total Medicaid Spending FY 2013: 
$2.9 Billion 
Overweight/Obese Adults:
64.8%
Poor Mental Health among Adults: 
34.2%
Medicaid Expansion: 
No

Stuck in an Opioids Crisis, Officials Turn to Acupuncture

Marine veteran Jeff Harris was among the first to sign up when the Providence VA hospital started offering acupuncture for chronic pain.

"I don't like taking pain medication. I don't like the way it makes me feel," he said.

Bipartisan group of Senators call on Trump to boost Alzheimer's funding

A bipartisan group of senators is calling on President Trump to boost funding for Alzheimer’s research in his fiscal 2019 budget set to be released this month.

News Author: 
Rachel Roubein

PTN - Maine Quality Counts, Northern New England Practice Transformation Network

Maine Quality Counts (QC) and regional partners have created the Northern New England Practice Transformation Network (NNE-PTN), a federally-funded set of resources and learning available to practices at no cost.  The NNE-PTN is a collaborative effort of trusted organizations that is offering support to primary care, specialist, and behavioral health clinicians to improve the health of patients, improve the health and vitality of clinicians and practice teams, and strengthen the financial health of practices.

Not Your Usual Suspects: Roles For State Agencies In PCMH Payment Reforms

The growth of multipayer patient centered medical home (PCMH) reform across the country, accelerated by the Affordable Care Act, offers the opportunity to widely transform the primary care delivery system. Recent Health Affairs research noted 17 multipayer PCMH initiatives had been launched since 2008; and with State Innovation Model (SIM) grants awarded to 39 states and territories, these numbers will grow — multipayer payment reform is a core req

News Author: 
Ledia Tabor

Transforming health care: Portland nonprofit trains doctors to be health care leaders

Jim Harnar, who's stepping down this month after serving 10 years as executive director of the Daniel Hanley Center for Health Leadership, has been thinking a lot recently about "impact."

News Author: 
James McCarthy

Appropriation for patient-centered medical home pilot

In the FY2010 budget, the Maine legislature appropriated $500,000 to partially fund a PCMH pilot in partnership with Maine Quality Forum (MQF), Maine Quality Counts, and the Maine Health Management Coalition with additional funding from an RWJ Foundation Aligning Forces for Quality grant.  

Hot zones / dead zones: Local factors produce patchy national shift to ACOs

Over the past three years, the number of people covered under Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems' value-based payment contracts has swelled from 9,400 to 100,000.

In that period, the eight-hospital not-for-profit system has seen emergency department visits decline 2.8%, admissions drop as much as 21%, and primary-care visits jump 23.7%. The system calculates that it has lowered its per-member, per-month Medicare cost trend by 4.7%, and healthcare costs for its employees have grown less than 5%.

News Author: 
Beth Kutscher

Public health advocates blast LePage plan to redirect tobacco settlement money

Health care advocates packed a State House hearing Monday to protest Gov. Paul LePage’s proposal to take $10 million a year in tobacco settlement money from the Fund for a Healthy Maine and shift it to primary care doctors.

While the Fund for a Healthy Maine pays for several public health efforts – including anti-obesity, substance abuse and child care – critics said LePage’s plan would have a particularly devastating effect on anti-smoking programs. 

News Author: 
Joe Lawlor

Community health clinics struggle with impact of MaineCare cuts

Patients who lost coverage are showing up at clinics across Maine, and the cost of treating them with little or no reimbursement is creating financial problems.

At the Portland Community Health Center, patients pack into a small waiting room to see harried doctors and nurses for primary care services such as vaccines, checkups and to acquire antibiotics for infections.

Increasingly, the patients do not have MaineCare – the state’s name for Medicaid – and are instead uninsured, leaving the health center facing a financial crunch that if not addressed would threaten the clinic’s existence. 

That’s because the dollars-and-cents difference for the clinic between seeing a MaineCare patient or an uninsured patient is dramatic.

Redefining care saves federal money, earns MaineHealth a $9.2 million windfall

Medicare compensates the parent of Maine Medical Center for efficiencies as the health care system moves toward rewarding prevention and patients' outcomes.

MaineHealth, the health care conglomerate anchored by Maine Medical Center, received a check from the federal government for $9.2 million in October, a reward for saving Medicare nearly $20 million through cost efficiencies in primary care.

News Author: 
JOE LAWLOR

Pagine

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