Governor Greg Abbott and the Texas Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) announced Friday, Aug. 7, that $1.1 billion in Quality Incentive Payment Program (QIPP) funds had been approved by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to support Texas nursing facilities that provide care for individuals receiving Medicaid.
“This funding will improve the quality of care and strengthen infection controls at Texas nursing facilities,” said Abbott. “I thank our partners at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid for providing these critical funds.”
QIPP provides performance incentive Medicaid payments to nursing facilities that provide care for persons with Medicaid and rewards quality improvements in staffing, infection control, and other key long-term care quality indicators.
“We worked hard to secure this additional federal funding that serves as a critical incentive for innovation and improvements to care for people living in Texas nursing facilities,” said Texas HHS Executive Commissioner Phil Wilson. “Our highest priority is the health, safety and well-being of the people residing in the facilities we regulate, and this funding is especially helpful as we continue to protect Texans.”
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services approved the estimated QIPP pool size for SFY 2021 at $1.1 billion, up from $600 million in SFY 2020.
Through QIPP, Texas Medicaid managed care organizations (MCOs) receive additional funding through their monthly capitation rate from HHSC and are directed to make performance-based payment increases to nursing facilities. As designed, eligible nursing facilities receive additional payments if they achieve progress on different quality targets.
Entering its fourth year, QIPP is a performance-based program that encourages nursing facilities to improve the quality and innovation of their services through implementation of improvements.
The program compensates facilities for meeting or exceeding certain goals, with 16 percent of program funds dedicated to improving infection control and infection-related quality measures in publicly owned facilities. For more information about QIPP, visit the HHSC website.
