Quality Payment Program Small Underserved and Rural Support (QPP-SURS) Subcontract

Abstract of the MQDITA Subcontract Opportunity through CMS: The University of Kentucky Research Foundation proposes to participate in a 7-state coalition with the Altarum Institute in Michigan in response to the MACRA Quality Improvement Direct Technical Assistance (MQIDTA) Solicitation from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Altarum Institute will serve as the prime organization for this solicitation and will form the MACRA-Provider Resource Network (M-PRN), a coalition of multiple organizations across its proposed 7 state region, including 5 Regional Extension Centers and 3 Quality Improvement Networks. UKRF in concert with UK’s Kentucky Regional Extension Center within EVPHA and the College of Medicine’s Office of Research will serve as the state- level coordinating entity for Kentucky. The MQDITA funding opportunity will result in awards for a one year contract, renewable for up to five years with the proposed performance period of November 2016 – 2021. The proposed budget would provide UKRF with $384,000 per year for an overall subcontract amount of $1.92 million over five years. Because this project involves no research or evaluation components delivered by UK and will provide services to providers across the state, we are requesting a 21.6% indirect rate for this funding opportunity. The M-PRN is aimed at delivering efficient and effective provider support and technical assistance (TA) to 50,000 providers across 7 states in their transition to the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) and Alternative Payment Models (APMs) under CMS’ new Quality Payment Program. Transitioning to this new form of payment for Medicare services will be challenging for all providers, but MQIDTA is aimed specifically at providing targeted support to small providers in underserved and rural areas. Leveraging an extensive portfolio of regional assets and relationships for this population of providers, the 7-state M-PRN will deliver support across Michigan, Ohio, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky. The M-PRN technical assistance strategy consists of a three-tiered information delivery and learning system, offering a low, middle, and high-touch support, responsive to client learning preferences and needs. The first level of assistance will be a M-PRN Knowledge Center which will contain an FAQ Database, calendar of training events across the network, a help desk and hotline, and online expert chat. The second tier of assistance will include distance learning and virtual technical assistance including webinars, digests and alerts, and social media. The third tier of assistance will be virtual coaching which will involve a virtual learning collaborative , assessment and action planning, provider training, office hours with MACRA coaches, and a variety of in-person and virtual events and webinars.