Maine Health Care Quality Efforts Receive Significant Federal Support

Press Release

Governor John E. Baldacci today announced that the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will provide up to $26 million in Medicare funding over three years to support a critical health care quality project already underway in the State.

Maine was named by CMS as one of eight states to participate in a demonstration project that will evaluate effectiveness of doctors and other health professionals working together to improve patient care. The project is also designed to measure how such health care provider partnerships reduce inappropriate and costly emergency department visits and increase prevention and primary care.

"This award helps Maine build on great work already underway to improve how health care is delivered and paid for," said Governor Baldacci. "Maine's success in attracting federal support for our best practices rests in the powerful private-public collaborative of Dirigo's Maine Quality Forum, MaineCare, Quality Counts and the Maine Health Management Coalition. This partnership has worked to ensure Maine remains a leader in health care reforms that will increase access to quality care across the State and reduce its costs."

The federal support announced today builds on Maine's State Health Plan, which calls for us to redirect how we finance care and to invest in assuring Maine citizens have their health needs addressed in a comprehensive way.

Maine's project, the Multi-Payer Advanced Primary Care Practice Demonstration, is led by the Dirigo Health Agency's Maine Quality Forum. Work began in January 2010 in 22 physician practices across the state. Participating practices are paid to improve health care delivery; rewarding value, not volume. To date, the practices had been funded solely by MaineCare, private insurers and employers.

The project is administered through the Dirigo Health Agency, which has contracted with Dr. Lisa LeTourneau, director of Quality Counts, and will work with the private sector through the Maine Health Management Coalition.

For more information, including a list of the 22 participating practices in the State, visit: www.dirigohealth.maine.gov

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