The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced the state awardees for two new models designed to help curb the effects of the opioid epidemic.
The models are called the Maternal Opioid Misuse (MOM) model and the Integrated Care for Kids (InCK) model. Both allow states to create customized plans meant to cut costs and improve care for certain populations affected by opioids.
The MOM model is designed to improve the treatment of opioid use disorder (OUD) in mothers who are Medicaid beneficiaries. It addresses care fragmentation, with the goal being to improve care and reduce costs, while also expanding access and infrastructure and creating sustainable ways to pay for care coordination.
Ten states have been selected to receive funding under the MOM model. Those states include Colorado, Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Missouri, New Hampshire, Tennessee, Texas and West Virginia.
State awardees will receive a maximum of $64.5 million over the course of the five-year model. States will use that money to transition to the new model and fully implement their plans.
Meanwhile, the InCK model is designed to help children and their caregivers who have been touched by the opioid crisis.
Similar to the MOM model, the goal of InCK is to improve the health of Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)-covered children and their caregivers. Additional goals include keeping those children at home and creating sustainable payment models to allow for the integration of physical and behavioral health care.
InCK state awardees include Connecticut, Illinois (two awards), New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio and Oregon. The seven year model will launch in January 2020.
The funding will help the states bring together medical, behavioral and community-based services to reduce fragmentation and expand access to care for children and teens.
It will also give them “the flexibility to design interventions for their local communities that align health care delivery with child welfare support, educational systems, housing and nutrition services, mobile crisis response services, maternal and child health systems and other relevant service systems,” according to a press release announcing the news.
