Rural Health Value Program

new approaches and organizational frameworks to improve health outcomes, control costs, and improve population health.  Financial incentives are moving from volume-based services to value-based services, with a focus on measuring and accounting for quality of care in all settings and improving transitions of care as patients move between care settings.  New approaches to organizing care delivery are occurring quickly; however, most early adopters have been large, urban-based integrated delivery systems.  Early demonstrations and initiatives supported by private foundations or the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) focused largely on providers paid under traditional administered pricing systems and for whom quality indicators are well established.  Because rural health care providers are often paid outside of the traditional prospective payment systems and fee schedules, there is less known about how new and emerging models might function in rural communities.  As a result, rural health care providers and other stakeholders need to better understand the implications of these models, particularly for low-volume rural providers and those that receive special payment designations.  Rural providers need access to information and technical assistance to effectively take part in new and emerging demonstrations and initiatives. Under its statutory authority, the FORHP funds community health organizations to test innovative approaches to improving the delivery of care in their communities.  Projects focus on a wide range of activities, including direct health care delivery, formation of networks to gain economies of scale and shared knowledge, implementation of quality of improvement strategies, and expansion of health care service delivery via telehealth.  Evaluation of these awards documents outcomes and leads to the development of evidence-based practices that may be replicated in other communities.  These best practices are shared with the broader rural health community primarily via the Rural Community Health Gateway.  ORHP also funds technical assistance providers to work with grantees to implement best practices in their projects.  There are numerous opportunities to learn from and highlight the innovations of these grantees, and to share information with the technical assistance providers who support them. Specifically, the Rural Health Value Program awardee will: 1)      Review the work performed under the current Rural Health System Analysis and Technical Assistance (RHSATA) Cooperative Agreement program and identify ways to build on that work; 2)      Analyze recent national, regional, State and local demonstrations and initiatives for lessons learned that are relevant to rural health care providers, including barriers and policy challenges; translate findings for rural health care providers so that they might meaningfully participate; and disseminate the findings broadly to policy makers and rural health stakeholders; 3)      Conduct modeling of payment and quality proposals to inform rural health care delivery systems and other stakeholders and to assess alternative ways of delivering services in rural communities; 4)      Provide technical assistance to rural health care providers, including ORHP grantees, who seek to participate in a variety of demonstrations and initiatives that can help improve patient outcomes, lower health care costs, and/or improve population health; and 5)      Coordinate with ORHP grantees and other community-based programs in rural communities to facilitate maximum exposure and dissemination of program information, resources, and profiles of innovative rural health entities.