Multi-State Collaborative Meeting Held

Every year, the Milbank Memorial Fund holds an in-person meeting for participants in the Multi-State Collaborative (MC), a voluntary group of leaders who are representatives of state-based, multi-payer, primary care transformation initiatives.  This year, the meeting was held in Detroit in early November. Fifty individuals representing 16 statewide and regional projects attended.

The meeting took place as 14 local markets prepare to launch the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation’s five year Comprehensive Primary Care Plus (CPC+) program in January.

“The aim of the meeting was to support local conveners and payers as they help their multi-payer primary care transformation tables gel and thrive, leading to stable and credible local leadership and successful project outcomes,” said Lisa Dulsky Watkins, director of the MC.

The meeting had several specific goals:

1. To allow CPC+ local conveners and payer leaders to share information, get CPC+ updates, and assess the status of their local projects as they set about planning and implementing CPC+ locally
2. To codify important lessons from earlier iterations of multi-payer primary care transformation projects
3. To set expectations for how local multi-payer primary care transformation tables can be supported by the MC in 2017.

“This is a pivotal moment in the work of multi-payer primary care transformation—the simultaneous sun-setting and expansion of critical Medicare-led programs, the maturation of broader state-led delivery system reform efforts, payer-specific payment reform efforts, and a change in federal leadership,” said Dulsky Watkins. “The in-person meeting allowed for creating and cementing the underlying collaborative infrastructure and interpersonal connections so vital to the work ahead.” Lessons from the Multi-Payer Advanced Primary Care Practice (MAPCP) demonstration and Comprehensive Primary Care Initiative (CPC “classic”) provide opportunities for both payers and regions to learn and improve going forward.

“The Board and staff of the Fund have deepened its commitment to this work,” said Fund president Christopher F. Koller. “High-performing primary care must be the foundation of any health care system—and it can only be achieved with the alignment of payers’ local markets. The November meeting was another opportunity to support leaders in this work.”

Learn more about the CPC+ Payer Partner Roadmap

Review presentations from the meeting, including a description of the Multi-State Collaborative and a presentation on Health IT and Quality Measures