County receives $193K for improved Medicaid care
The Enterprise — Michael Koff
“BHNNY came out as one of the top performers, meeting most of the state goals,” said Louis Filhour. His Better Health for Northeast New York board, he said, decided to share the high-performance funds with its partners, like Albany County, to “sustain positive changes.”
ALBANY COUNTY — The county has received over $193,000 from Better Health for Northeast New York as a result of good mental-health care.
Part of a re-design supported the county’s mobile crisis team “to respond quickly to mental-health situations,” said Albany County Executive Daniel McCoy.
In New York, the Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (DSRIP) program, launched in 2011, has been the main mechanism for Medicaid reform with the goal of reducing costly, avoidable hospital use. The check of $193,189 was awarded to Albany County and Better Health after showing marked gains in key metrics in categories including Potentially Avoidable Readmissions, Antidepressant Medication Discontinued, Follow-up after Mental Health Care, and Controlling High Blood Pressure.
Louis Filhour, chief executive officer of BHNNY as it is called, made the check presentation during a press conference on Monday morning.
“The state did partner with the federal government more than five years ago in an effort to reform care for the Medicaid population,” he said. BHNNY is one of 25 organizations set up as part of the program in New York State, serving Albany, Columbia, Greene, Saratoga, and Warren counties.
It is made up of Albany Medical Center, Columbia Memorial Hospital, and Saratoga Hospital as well as 500 primary-care providers, 250 behavioral-health providers and skilled nursing facilities. “Also, equally important,” said Filhour, “[are] community-based organizations with the goal of transforming care.”
The initiative, Filhour said, ended in December 2020. “BHNNY came out as one of the top performers, meeting most of the state goals,” said Filhour. His board, he said, decided to share the high-performance funds with its partners, like Albany County, to “sustain positive changes.”
“Because we were able to expand crisis stabilization, we actually improved the care for patients,” Filhour said. “We decreased and prevented them going to the emergency room. We prevented them from being admitted. We provided the services when they were needed and we helped to expand those hours.”
He said that the latest state budget recognized that with additional funding to continue the initiatives.
