Members of Gov. Peter Shumlin’s administration have recommended that $1.2 million in unspent federal money be used to set up part of the new all-payer model of health care payment.
The core team members of the Vermont Health Care Innovation Project approved the proposed expenditure at a meeting Monday afternoon.
The group meets every few weeks to discuss how it’s spending money under the State Innovation Model, or SIM, grant, a $45 million pot of federal money that the state has used to drive health care reform.
The grant expires June 30.
Lawrence Miller, the governor’s chief of health care reform; Robin Lunge, the director of health care reform; and Georgia Maheras, the deputy director of health care reform, identified $1.46 million that is available to be spent before the grant expires.
The three told a group of nearly a dozen stakeholders that $1.2 million of the money should be spent to negotiate contracts with the Vermont Care Organization — an offshoot of OneCare Vermont that will be the state’s main health care organization under the all-payer model.
Miller told the stakeholders that approving the expenditure was a first step in proposing the spending to the federal government, which has certain requirements on how money would be used. He said the federal process would help iron out the exact terms of the spending.
The group voted that the other roughly $260,000 be kept in a reserve.
The group meets again Nov. 14 in Montpelier.
