Preliminary summative evaluation of California’s public hospital redesign and incentives in Medi-Cal (PRIME) Program
Jack Needleman and Nadereh Pourat co-authored a research report evaluating California's Public Hospital Redesign and Incentives in Medi-Cal program.
UCLA Fielding School of Public Health professors Jack Needleman, chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management, and Nadereh Pourat, professor of health policy and management, co-authored a research report evaluating Californian's Public Hospital Redesign and Incentives in Medi-Cal (PRIME) program.
California has promoted value-based care in its public hospitals under a Section 1115 Medicaid Waiver called Public Hospital Redesign and Incentives in Medi-Cal (PRIME), a waiver overseen by California’s Department of Health Care Services (DHCS). PRIME required 54 public hospitals to significantly transform their outpatient care delivery, receiving payment for improved performance.
The Interim Evaluation of PRIME Report, led by UCLA Center for Health Policy Research Associate Director Nadereh Pourat, indicated establishment of needed infrastructures for PRIME projects such as following evidence-based guidelines, better care outcomes such as increased screening for cancer and tobacco use, and better health such as hypertension and diabetes control.
In the Preliminary Summative Evaluation Report, Pourat and team have evaluated PRIME since the Interim Evaluation Report and near the end of PRIME implementation. The findings indicate that hospitals had:
- Completed most of their PRIME project goals, building on synergies between project goals and organizational mission and other quality improvement initiatives.
- Highlighted the high impact of PRIME on establishing data gathering and processing tools and promoting internal stakeholder engagement and data driven quality improvement.
- Significantly improved the majority of process and outcomes performance metrics up to the last year of the program and prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The final Summative Evaluation Report will be available later in 2021 and will examine the impact of COVID-19 on PRIME activities, and include a comprehensive assessment of PRIME’s impact on health care utilization of Medi-Cal enrollee populations that received services by participating hospitals.
Co-authors: Ana E. Martinez, Xiao Chen, and Anna Warrick, all with the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research, and Lina Tieu and Michael Huynh.
Written by Elaiza Torralba
Faculty Referenced by this Article
Dr. Ron Andersen is the Wasserman Professor Emeritus in the UCLA Departments of Health Policy and Management.
Professor of Community Health Sciences & Health Policy and Management, and Associate Dean for Research
EMPH Academic Program Director with expertise in healthcare marketing, finance, and reproductive health policy, teaching in the EMPH, MPH, MHA program
Nationally recognized health services researcher and sociomedical scientist with 25+ years' experience in effectiveness and implementation research.
Dr. Michelle S. Keller is a health services researcher whose research focuses on the use and prescribing of high-risk medications.
