October 26, 2012
A major hurdle in the sprint to transform the healthcare system in Travis County was cleared today. Central Health learned late yesterday that the Community Care Collaborative (CCC), Travis County’s new integrated delivery system, was declared eligible by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services to receive Medicaid funding through the Section 1115 Medicaid Transformation Waiver.
With this approval, the CCC will be considered eligible to receive Federal funding through what is known as the Texas Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (DSRIP) Pool. This approval allows the CCC to fund the many proposed behavioral health and healthcare reform and improvement projects focused on increasing access to care and improving patient health outcomes. The CCC is a voluntary collaborative being developed locally between Central Health, the Seton Healthcare Family and other community partners.
“We are excited and relieved to know that all of the months of work we and our partners have invested in this collaboration have paid off in a very real way that will directly benefit almost 50,000 of our neighbors who are uninsured,” Central Health President & CEO Patricia A. Young Brown said.
The CCC is a multi-institutional, multi-provider system of healthcare envisioned to provide a coordinated continuum of services to a defined patient population. It will manage the care of Travis County residents who are uninsured, living at or below 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Level, and who qualify for services. In total, approximately 50,000 individuals will be cared for through the CCC. To accomplish its goal of comprehensively transforming the healthcare system, the CCC will shift attention from treating illnesses as they occur to preventing them in the first place, managing chronic diseases and supporting the integration of clinical and behavioral health services.
“We thank Congressman Doggett and Congressman McCaul for their bipartisan efforts to champion innovative local solutions to address our healthcare needs for the uninsured. We would also like to extend our thanks to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Texas Health and Human Services Commission for supporting our work to create this model program. I am proud to stand with my fellow board members and Central Health in support of this innovative collaborative effort that will improve care for thousands of Travis County residents,” Central Health Board of Managers Chairperson Rosie Mendoza said.
Central Health will continue to work with HHSC to meet all of the requirements of the Waiver to ensure that our local tax dollars will be maximized.
For a more detailed description of the CCC, as well as the HHS notification letter, attachments follow.