Ohio Governor John Kasich recently launched an initiative to shift Ohio’s healthcare payment system from a volume-based business model to one based on value and performance. The Office of Ohio Health Plans (Ohio Medicaid) has begun to work with Catalyst for Payment Reform (CPR), a non-profit organization that helps employers and other healthcare purchasers get better quality, less expensive health care. Ohio Medicaid is the first state Medicaid program to partner with CPR, Kasich said.

While the initiative is currently focused on Ohio Medicaid, Kasich said his administration will be “ramping up” discussions with health insurers, health systems, employers, healthcare providers, and advocate groups to align priorities and work on payment reform.

“If payers start lining up their expectations, it becomes a powerful tool to change the delivery of healthcare,” said Greg Moody, director of the Governor’s Office of Health Transformation (OHT). CPR’s participants include some of the nation’s largest corporations and public healthcare purchasers, including the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System. Participants align payment strategies to reward performance and adopt model health plan contract language from CPR.

“In Ohio and across the country, we must do a better job of meeting the health needs of individuals and creating a healthy and productive workforce at a price that is affordable for businesses, governments, individuals and other payers,” Director Moody said. “In partnership with CPR, we are setting clear expectations for providers and health plans in Ohio and developing tools to give Ohioans more bang for their healthcare buck.”