As part of Healthier Washington, the Washington State Health Care Authority (HCA) has released a draft toolkit for Medicaid waiver transformation projects. Once final, the toolkit will guide the work of global waiver in the nine Accountable Communities of Health (ACH) regions during the next five years. Up to $1.1 billion in funding will be available for providers interested in participating in the identified projects, with funding distributed when project milestones are achieved.
Based on the pre-draft toolkit, each ACH is required to develop three specified projects, and each can pick from a small menu of additional, optional projects as well. Hospitals and health systems will be critical participants in the required and optional projects of the regions.
The toolkit will be finalized over the next month, so begin thinking about whether and how your organization would like to participate in the three required projects and what optional projects you would like to work on. The waiver demonstration will likely start shortly after the New Year and will be moving extremely fast. Click here to read more in a recent WSHA bulletin. (Chelene Whiteaker)