Healthcentric partners with Conn. group on $53M CMS contract

HEALTHCENTRIC ADVISORS, the federally designated Quality Improvement Organizations for Rhode Island, has received a $53 million contract awarded from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Healthcentric Advisors, as the prime contractor for this work, has engaged Qualidigm, the incumbent QIO for Connecticut, to serve as subcontractor.
HEALTHCENTRIC ADVISORS, the federally designated Quality Improvement Organizations for Rhode Island, has received a $53 million contract awarded from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Healthcentric Advisors, as the prime contractor for this work, has engaged Qualidigm, the incumbent QIO for Connecticut, to serve as subcontractor.

(Corrected, 5:11 p.m.)

PROVIDENCE – The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has awarded a $53 million contract to nonprofit health care agency Healthcentric Advisors, the federally designated Quality Improvement Organization for Rhode Island.

The contract, one of a series awarded last week to 14 organizations across the United States, are administered under the CMS’ Quality Innovation Network-Quality Improvement Organization program, the largest federal program dedicated to health care quality.

Healthcentric Advisors, as the prime contractor under the $53 million contract, has engaged Qualidigm, the incumbent QIO for Connecticut, to serve as subcontractor. Together, Healthcentric Advisors and Qualidigm will administer the QIN-QIO contract for the six New England states.

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The five-year contract awarded to Healthcentric, the third-largest award in the country, will begin on Aug. 1.

“Healthcentric Advisors and Qualidigm have a long history of working successfully with hospitals, nursing homes, physicians and other providers and stakeholders in our respective states. We’ve created solutions to improve patient care and population health while lowering healthcare costs,” said John Keimig, president and CEO of Healthcentric Advisors. “We look forward to bringing that same spirit of partnership and collaboration to the entire New England region.”

While overseeing work for the entire region, Healthcentric Advisors will focus its efforts in Maine, Massachusetts and Rhode Island, while Wethersfield, Conn.-based Qualidigm will focus on Connecticut, New Hampshire and Vermont. Both groups will work with providers and communities on data-driven quality initiatives to improve quality of care throughout New England.

Planned initiatives include reducing infections, reducing re-admissions and medication errors, working with nursing homes to improve care for residents, supporting clinical practices in using interoperable health-information technology to coordinate care, and improving patient and family engagement, said Healthcentric in a release.

The latest QIN-QIO contract awards represent a restructuring of the program, which splits QIO responsibilities into two separate contract types: one for medical case review and appeals, to be performed by Beneficiary and Family-Centered Care QIOs, and one for quality improvement and technical assistance, to be performed by the QIN-QIOs.

Under the new structure, the medical case review and appeals responsibilities previously performed by Healthcentric Advisors, Qualidigm, Masspro (the incumbent Massachusetts QIO), and the Northeast Health Care Quality Foundation (the incumbent New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont QIO) will now be performed by Annapolis, Md.-based Livanta LLC.

The original version of this story incorrectly stated that the CMS contract was awarded to both Healthcentric Advisors and Qualidigm. Healthcentric received the contract and has engaged Qualidigm to serve as subcontractor.

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