Legislators press Blueprint for Health presenters on funding, NCQA burden and early mental‑health pilot gains

Melissa Black, chair, convened a March 31 briefing that walked legislators through Vermont’s Blueprint for Health, focusing on community health teams, value‑based payments and outcomes from a $16 million mental‑health integration pilot.

John Soy, executive director of the Blueprint for Health at the Agency of Human Services, outlined the program’s history and structure, saying the Blueprint was codified into statute, expanded statewide and centers on patient‑centered medical homes supported by community health teams that include nurses, social‑work coordinators, behavioral‑health counselors and community health workers. "The Blueprint assigns practices to a health service area" and supports teams "at no cost to patients or providers," Soy said.

Legislators pressed presenters on how the Blueprint is funded and measured. Soy described the program’s multi‑payer per‑member‑per‑month (PMPM) payments — paid by Medicaid and commercial insurers (Medicare participation ended last year) — and an attribution algorithm that looks back at two years of claims to assign patients to practices. He said roughly 293,847 patients were attributed to Blueprint practices under that…