(1) The authority and the department may restructure medicaid procurement of health care services and agreements with managed care systems on a phased basis to better support integrated physical health, mental health, and substance use disorder treatment, consistent with assumptions in Second Substitute Senate Bill No. 6312, Laws of 2014, and recommendations provided by the behavioral health task force. The authority and the department may develop and utilize innovative mechanisms to promote and sustain integrated clinical models of physical and behavioral health care.
(2) The authority and the department may incorporate the following principles into future medicaid procurement efforts aimed at integrating the delivery of physical and behavioral health services:
(a) Medicaid purchasing must support delivery of integrated, person-centered care that addresses the spectrum of individuals' health needs in the context of the communities in which they live and with the availability of care continuity as their health needs change;
(b) Accountability for the client outcomes established in RCW
71.24.435 and
71.36.025 and performance measures linked to those outcomes;
(c) Medicaid benefit design must recognize that adequate preventive care, crisis intervention, and support services promote a recovery-focused approach;
(d) Evidence-based care interventions and continuous quality improvement must be enforced through contract specifications and performance measures that provide meaningful integration at the patient care level with broadly distributed accountability for results;
(e) Active purchasing and oversight of medicaid managed care contracts is a state responsibility;
(f) A deliberate and flexible system change plan with identified benchmarks to promote system stability, provide continuity of treatment for patients, and protect essential existing behavioral health system infrastructure and capacity; and
(g) Community and organizational readiness are key determinants of implementation timing; a phased approach is therefore desirable.
(3) The principles identified in subsection (2) of this section are not intended to create an individual entitlement to services.
(4) The authority shall increase the use of value-based contracting, alternative quality contracting, and other payment incentives that promote quality, efficiency, cost savings, and health improvement, for medicaid and public employee purchasing. The authority shall also implement additional chronic disease management techniques that reduce the subsequent need for hospitalization or readmissions. It is the intent of the legislature that the reforms the authority implements under this subsection are anticipated to reduce extraneous medical costs, across all medical programs, when fully phased in by fiscal year 2017 to generate budget savings identified in the omnibus appropriations act.