CMS Awards 10 States with $50 Million to Combat Opioid Use Disorder

January 2020 ~

CMS, in December, announced ten states selected to receive funding under the Maternal Opioid Misuse (MOM) Model and eight cooperative agreements for the Integrated Care for Kids (InCK) Model, in seven states.

As seen in the press release, these selections are the “next step in the CMS multi-pronged strategy to combat the nation’s opioid crisis and address fragmentation in the care of pregnant and postpartum Medicaid beneficiaries with opioid use disorder (OUD)”. According to the agency, the MOM Model has the potential to improve the quality of care and reduce expenditures for pregnant and postpartum women with opioid use disorder (OUD) as well as their infants, increase access to treatment, and create sustainable coverage and payment strategies that support ongoing coordination and integration of care.

Additionally, the seven-year InCK model, scheduled to launch this month, is another part of the agency’s strategy to battle the opioid crisis and address its subsequent impact on Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)-covered children and their caregivers. According to CMS, the InCK Model is designed to improve child health, reduce avoidable inpatient stays and out-of-home placement, and create sustainable payment models to coordinate physical and behavioral health care with services to address health-related needs.

“The MOM and InCK Models are a unique opportunity for healthcare providers to improve care for mothers and infants affected by the opioid crisis, and the models represent another step in President Trump’s agenda to address two significant public health challenges: the opioid crisis and maternal health by providing holistic, compassionate treatment and recovery services,” said U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar. “The models also are aimed at promoting more coordination and integration of care to improve health for children with complex needs and drive better outcomes, and we look forward to assessing the results of our participants as they work to support some of the most vulnerable mothers, infants, and children.”

The MOM Model will have a five-year period of performance beginning in January 2020 with three different types of funding, totaling approximately $50,000,000. Specifically, awardees will use the funds to transition into the new model of care, and then fully implement their plan. The following 10 states have been awarded MOM Model funding: Colorado, Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Missouri, New Hampshire, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia.

InCK funding will provide Connecticut, Illinois (2 awards), New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, and Oregon with the flexibility to design interventions for their local communities that align health care delivery with child welfare support, educational systems, housing and nutrition services, mobile crisis response services, maternal and child health systems, and other relevant service systems. By bringing together medical, behavioral, and community-based services, InCK strives to reduce fragmentation in service delivery and expand access to care for children and youth.

For additional information about how the two models compare, see the Comparing the InCK & MOM Models fact sheet.

Source(s): CMS Press Release; mHealth Intelligence; Modern Healthcare;