The House Standing Committee on Health Services recently heard updates about the Hospital Rate Improvement Program, or HRIP. The program has been in place since 2022, and officials said it’s led to better quality care across the state.
Nancy Galvagni, President of the Kentucky Hospital Association, spoke before the committee. She said the program has provided additional resources for hospitals to invest in staff and training.
“HRIP is known as Medicaid State directed payment program, and this program allows Kentucky Medicaid to draw down additional federal funds at no additional cost to the state. And that is because the hospitals pay a provider tax that funds the state portion of the share that we have to put up to draw down the federal funds,” said Galvagni.
The funding that hospitals receive has also been put toward safety procedures and making sure patients are as healthy as they can be before they are discharged.
“Our hospitals have been able to reduce unplanned readmissions from a double-digit percent, 10% baseline, down to a single digit, 6% in just one year. Hospitals have also used HRIP resources to focus on reducing sepsis and infection rates, and we’re seeing success on both of these fronts,” said Galvagni.
According to reports, under HRIP, 98% of patients are being screened for sepsis, and are treated in a timely manner once it is identified.
Galvagni said these funds are used by hospitals to make sure patients are safer and receive a higher quality of care. Funds are used for critical training procedures, and more than 1,100 staff, both clinical and non-clinical, have been trained since 2022.
Under the initiative, Kentucky hospitals have also significantly reduced the number of opioids prescribed to patients, with less than 2% leaving any hospital with multiple opioid prescriptions. Hospitals have additionally lowered the rates of infections from 2022-2023, helping the Medicaid program by avoiding longer hospital stays and associated costs.