The Rochester area will get $26.6 million to improve primary care and its cost effectiveness, and improve care for Medicare and Medicaid patients, officials announced Friday.
The Finger Lakes Health Systems Agency developed the plan in conjunction with a team of Rochester health care providers, insurance companies, businesses and government leaders, officials said.
The area will use one-third of the funding to hire care managers for doctors’ offices in six counties, representatives said.
Another 33 percent of the money will be used to assist doctors in streamlining patient care, representatives said. The remaining third will be used to improve data-tracking practices so effective and cost-saving medical treatments are documented and more-easily replicated nationwide.
The plan will save $48 million over three years, representatives said.
“These grant funds are a game-changer, as our community will fundamentally change the way health care is provided through new tools to deliver better health, to improve care and to lower costs by reducing unnecessary utilization,” FLHSA Executive Director Fran Weisberg said in a statement.
The FLHSA is to train 726 health workers and hire 76 health care providers over three years in Monroe, Livingston, Ontario, Seneca, Wayne and Yates counties, the statement said.
The funding comes from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Care Innovation Awards, established as part of the Affordable Care Act of 2010. Awards range from $1 million to $30 million over three years.
“Rochester is already a high quality, lower cost community for health care,” Excellus BlueCross BlueShield CEO David Klein said in the statement. “What’s unique about this new project is the promise for further improvements in quality and cost management.”
(c) 2012 Rochester Business Journal. To obtain permission to reprint this article, call 585-546-8303 or email service@rbj.net.
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