§ 7 — Administration of the Healthcare Payment Reform Fund; competitive process for development of health care payment and service delivery models; annual report

Section 7. (a) The commission, in consultation with the advisory council, shall administer the Healthcare Payment Reform Fund, established under section 100 of chapter 194 of the acts of 2011. The fund shall be used for the following purposes: (1) to support the activities of the commission; and (2) to foster innovation in health care payment and service delivery.(b) The commission shall establish a competitive process for health care entities to develop, implement or evaluate promising models in health care payment and health care service delivery. Assistance from the commission may take the form of incentives, grants, technical assistance, evaluation assistance or partnerships, as determined by the commission.(c) Prior to making a request for proposals under subsection (b), the commission shall solicit ideas for health care payment and service reforms directly from providers, provider organizations, carriers, research institutions, health professionals, public institutions of higher education, community-based organizations and private-public partnerships, or any combination thereof. The commission shall review health care payment and service delivery models so submitted and shall seek input from other relevant stakeholders in evaluating their potential.[ Subsection (d) effective until April 8, 2025. For text effective April 8, 2025, see below.](d) The commission shall consider proposals that achieve 1 or more of the following goals: (i) to support safety-net provider and disproportionate share hospital participation in new payment and health care payment and service delivery models; (ii) to support the successful implementation of performance improvement plans by health care entities under subsection (c) of section 10; (iii) to support cooperative efforts between representatives of employees and management that are focused on controlling costs and improving the quality of care through workforce engagement; (iv) to support the evaluation of mobile health and connected health technologies to improve health outcomes among under-served patients with chronic diseases; (v) to develop the capacity to safely and effectively treat chronic, common and complex diseases in rural and underserved areas and to monitor outcomes of those treatments; and (vi) any other goals as determined by the commission.[ Subsection (d) as amended by 2024, 343, Sec. 15 effective April 8, 2025. For text effective until April 8, 2025, see above.](d) The commission shall consider proposals that achieve 1 or more of the following goals: (i) to support safety-net provider and disproportionate share hospital participation in new payment and health care payment and service delivery models; (ii) to support the successful implementation of performance improvement plans by health care entities under subsection (c) of section 10; (iii) to support cooperative efforts between representatives of employees and management that are focused on controlling costs and improving the quality of care through workforce engagement; (iv) to support the evaluation of mobile health and connected health technologies to improve health outcomes among under-served patients with chronic diseases; (v) to develop the capacity to safely and effectively treat chronic, common and complex diseases in rural and underserved areas and to monitor outcomes of those treatments; (vi) advance health equity; and (vii) any other goals as determined by the commission.(e) All approved activities funded through the Healthcare Payment Reform Fund shall support the commonwealth's efforts to meet the health care cost growth benchmark established under section 9, and shall include measurable outcomes in both cost reduction and quality improvement.(f) To the maximum extent feasible, the commission shall seek to coordinate expenditures from the Healthcare Payment Reform Fund with other public expenditures from the Prevention and Wellness Trust Fund, the E-Health Institute Fund, the Massachusetts Health Information Exchange Fund, the Distressed Hospital Trust Fund, the Health Care Workforce Transformation Trust Fund, the executive office of health and human services, any funding available through the Medicare program and the CMS Innovation Center, established under the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and any funding expended under the Delivery System Transformation Initiative Master Plan and hospital-specific plans approved in the MassHealth section 1115 demonstration waiver.(g) Activities funded through the Healthcare Payment Reform Fund that demonstrate measurable success in improving care or reducing costs shall be shared with other providers, provider organizations and payers as model programs which may be voluntarily adopted by such other health care entities. The commission may also incorporate any successful models and practices into its standards for ACO certification under section 15 and for alternative payment methodologies established for state-funded programs.(h) The commission shall, annually on or before January 31, report on expenditures from the Healthcare Payment Reform Fund. The report shall include, but not be limited to: (i) the revenue credited to the fund; (ii) the amount of fund expenditures attributable to the administrative costs of the commission; (iii) an itemized list of the funds expended through the competitive process and a description of the grantee activities; and (iv) the results of the evaluation of the effectiveness of the activities funded through grants. The report shall be provided to the chairs of the house and senate committees on ways and means and the joint committee on health care financing and shall be posted on the commission's website.