Arkansas

­­The Arkansas Department of Human Services, Division of Medical Services, is seeking to implement broad scale multipayer payment reform that has implications for the delivery of primary care. In early 2011, Arkansas’s Department of Human Services proposed an initiative they call “Transforming Arkansas Medicaid” (in later documents, “Transforming Arkansas Health Care”). The state’s proposal indicates that the initiative would pay partnerships of providers to act as health homes.

 

Federal Support: Arkansas has received a planning grant from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to develop a state plan amendment to implement Section 2703 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), establishing health homes for Medicaid enrollees with chronic conditions. For more information on the Arkansas's application, visit the state’s archive for their health homes planning initiative.

 

Arkansas has also been selected to participate in the CMS's upcoming Comprehensive Primary Care Initiative. In this multi-payer initiative, Medicare will collaborate with public and private insurers in the selected regions with the goal of strengthening primary care.

 

Last Updated: May 2012

 

Forming Partnerships	The state Department of Human Services proposed the “Transforming Arkansas Medicaid” inititative in early 2011, and worked throughout the year to gather input from stakeholders and partners, including providers. For more information, visit the state’s archive for this initiative.
Aligning Reimbursement & Purchasing	Arkansas’s “Transforming Arkansas Medicaid” initiative includes an effort to move Arkansas’s Medicaid payment system from a traditional fee-for-service model to one that pays providers for episodes of care (acute, sub-acute or chronic) in bundled payments. In their proposal, the state lists Arkansas BlueCross and BlueShield as potential partner in this new payment system.