2C: Payment and Care Delivery Reform in the Health Care Safety Net

Payment reform represents both a challenge and an opportunity for safety net organizations to improve the quality of health care for vulnerable populations. There is a need and opportunity to provide adequate and flexible resources that can sustainably support innovative delivery approaches for improving the care of individuals as well as overall population health. However, many technical and operational challenges exist. We will provide an overview of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation funded center, the Safety Net Advancement Center (SNAC), established to assist safety net organizations in overcoming payment and care delivery reform challenges.

SNAC has undertaken three complementary initiatives to accomplish this goal. First, SNAC has established a comprehensive online resource center with care delivery reform resources. Second, beginning in June, SNAC will launch the first of six virtual learning collaboratives on topics affecting safety net organizations. Finally, SNAC will grant $80,000 to up to seven safety net organizations to help support real-time learning about best practices for addressing payment reform implementation challenges.

This session will also include a panel of experts in safety net payment and care delivery reform from various safety net sectors. The panel will discuss four areas of interest: 1)what are the major barriers preventing payment and care delivery reform, 2) what are the opportunities in payment reform, 3) what is need to succeed in the new environment, and 4) what is being done to respond successfully.

Given the significant reach of the health care safety net, it is critically important to ensure the transition to payment reform is as smooth and supportive as possible. Many safety net organizations are often uniquely positioned to address underlying causes of poor health in underserved communities and provide the kind of high-value health care that new payment models are designed to support.