Regional 646 Demo

March, 2006

Here in the Upper Midwest, we have been trying to find political answers to payment inequity since I left the Senate 10 years ago.  So far, we haven’t been too successful.  But, it appears that CMS may be offering us the opportunity to design and implement our own solutions.   

The 646 Quality Demo Upper Midwest task force and leaders met last week for two, half-day working sessions to plan the submission of a region-wide proposal from Upper Midwest healthcare leaders. 

Dr. Barry Straube, Director and Chief Clinical Officer for the Office of Clinical Standards and Quality at CMS, spent an hour with us via teleconference.  His message was incredibly encouraging. “You have the experience and intelligent people to pull this off.  With that baseline—and your combination of integrated health systems, health plans, academic centers, medical groups and your demonstrated ability to collaborate—you are a perfect test ground.  A proposal from your group and your area of the country can teach CMS a lot. CMS and others have a lot to learn about why you have the track record you do.” 

Several other national leaders, including Peggy O’Kane from NCQA, Jack Wennberg from Dartmouth Center for the Evaluative Sciences and Beth McGlynn from the RAND Corporation also urged leadership from the Upper Midwest to take action.  Peggy O’Kane stressed the importance of such an effort.  “This is a bold idea that you shouldn’t back off from.  The system is in need of bold ideas.” 

Physician and hospital leaders representing North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Montana and Minnesota are working to align their varying interests and quality programs, and to construct a common platform on which to launch this Upper Midwest demonstration. A work plan is under development and design teams for clinical, finance, IT, and governance issues are being formed. 

If you are interested in having your organization involved in this opportunity and have not yet signed on, please contact me at ddurenberger@stthomas.edu or Sheila Moroney at (612) 204-4137.