Massachusetts Medicaid Waiver Approved: State To Begin Transforming Integrated, Value-Based Care

On November 4, 2016, the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) approved the Massachusetts Medicaid 1115 waiver. This will allow the state to move forward with a major Medicaid system reorganization. The goal of the transformation is to implement programs that move the Massachusetts Medicaid system from fee-for-service to integrated care and value-based reimbursement arrangements via the use of statewide Medicaid accountable care organizations (ACOs).

Under the provisions of the newly approved waiver, MassHealth will expand the Medicaid ACOs statewide beginning July 1, 2017. The waiver has five goals:

Restructures the current MassHealth delivery system . . .