Mapping Medicare Disparities Map

Recently, CMS announced the participants in the Frontier Community Health Integration Project (FCHIP) Demonstration, an effort to increase access to care for Medicare beneficiaries in areas of the country where access to health services can be limited because of distance from providers. Ten Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) in Montana, Nevada and North Dakota will participate in the demonstration, which begins this month.

CAHs serve as the hubs for healthcare activities in frontier areas, but they often serve few inpatients. In this Demonstration, CMS expects CAHs to increase access to services that are often unavailable in frontier communities with the goal of avoiding expensive transfers to hospitals in larger communities. CMS will evaluate whether providing these services in frontier communities can improve the quality of care received by Medicare beneficiaries, increase patient satisfaction and reduce Medicare expenditures.

The demonstration will provide financial incentives for care coordination activities for local CAHs to reduce unnecessary admissions and readmissions across their networks of care. Specifically, the demonstration aims to:

  • Support the CAH and local delivery system in keeping patients within the community who might otherwise be transferred to distant providers
  • Test whether payments for certain services will enhance access to care for patients, increase the integration and coordination of care among providers, and reduce avoidable hospitalizations, admissions and transfers
  • Test new CAH activities in three service categories: skilled nursing care, telehealth and ambulance services

The three North Dakota hospitals include McKenzie County Healthcare Systems, Inc. in Watford City; Southwest Healthcare Services in Bowman and Jacobson Memorial Hospital Care Center in Elgin.

For more information, visit the Frontier Community Health Integration Project Demonstration webpage. See the full text of this excerpted CMS press release.