OAR 410-141-3845: Flexible Services

(1) The goals of Flexible Services are to promote the efficient use of resources and address members' social determinants of health to improve health outcomes, alleviate health disparities, and improve overall community well-being. Flexible Services are provided as a complement to covered health care services: (a) Flexible Services may be provided at the member- or community-level, as defined below; (b) CCOs have the flexibility to identify and provide Flexible Services beyond the list of examples in 45 CFR §§ 158.150, 158.151, as long as they satisfy the requirements of this rule; (c) Flexible Services may be used to pay for non-covered health care services including physical health, mental health, behavioral health, oral health, and tribal-based services. (2) To qualify as Flexible Services within the meaning of this rule, a service must meet the following requirements, consistent with 45 CFR § 158.150: (a) The service must be designed to: (A) Improve health quality; (B) Increase the likelihood of desired health outcomes in a manner that is capable of being objectively measured and produce verifiable results and achievements; (C) Be directed toward either individuals or segments of members, or provide health improvements to the population beyond those enrolled without additional costs for the non-members; and (D) Be based on any of the following: (i) Evidence-based medicine; or (ii) Widely accepted best clinical practice; or (iii) Criteria issued by accreditation bodies, recognized professional medical associations, government agencies, or other national health care quality organizations. (b) The service must be primarily designed to achieve at least one of the following goals: (A) Improve health outcomes compared to a baseline and reduce health disparities among specified populations; (B) Prevent avoidable hospital readmissions through a comprehensive program for hospital discharge; (C) Improve patient safety, reduce medical errors, and lower infection and mortality rates; (D) Implement, promote, and increase wellness and health activities; (E) Support expenditures related to health information technology and meaningful use requirements necessary to accomplish the activities above that are set forth in 45 CFR 158.151 that promote clinic community linkage and referral processes or support other activities as defined in 45 CFR 158.150. (c) The following types of expenditures and activities are not considered Flexible Services: (A) Those that are designed primarily to control or contain costs; (B) Those that otherwise meet the definitions for quality improvement activities but that were paid for with grant money or other funding separate from revenue received through a CCO's contract; (C) Those activities that may be billed or allocated by a provider for care delivery and that are, therefore, reimbursed as clinical services; (D) Establishing or maintaining a claims adjudication system, including costs directly related to upgrades in health information technology that are designed primarily or solely to improve claims payment capabilities or to meet regulatory requirements for processing claims, including maintenance of ICD-10 codes sets adopted pursuant to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), 42 U.S.C. § 1320d-2, as amended; (E) That portion of the activities of health care professional hotlines that do not meet the definition of activities that improve health quality; (F) All retrospective and concurrent utilization review; (G) Fraud prevention activities; (H) The cost of developing and executing provider contracts and fees associated with establishing or managing a provider network, including fees paid to a vendor for the same reason; (I) Provider credentialing; (J) Costs associated with calculating and administering individual member incentives; and (K) That portion of prospective utilization that does not meet the definition of activities that improve health quality. (3) CCOs shall implement Policies and Procedures (P&Ps) for Flexible Services. These P&Ps shall be submitted within five (5) business days of the Authority’s request. (a) Flexible Services P&Ps shall encourage transparency and provider and member engagement, reflect streamlined administrative processes that do not create unnecessary barriers, and provide for accountability; (b) A CCO's Flexible Services spending at the community level shall promote alignment with the priorities identified in the CCO's community health improvement plan, and with any community-level Flexible Services spending priorities identified by the Authority; (c) The P&Ps shall describe how Flexible Services spending decisions are made, including the role of the CAC and tribes in community-level Flexible Services spending decisions; (d) CCOs must not limit the range of permissible Flexible Services by any means other than by enforcing the limits defined in this rule. (4) Member-level Flexible Services are cost-effective services offered to an individual member as an adjunct to covered benefits. Member-level Flexible Services shall be consistent with the member's treatment plan as developed by the member's care team and agreed to by the CCO. The care team and the CCO shall work with the member and, as appropriate, the family of the member in determining the Flexible Services needed to supplement the member's care: (a) CCOs shall provide members with a written notification of a refusal of a member-level Flexible Services request and shall copy any representative of the member and any provider who made or participated in the request on the member's behalf. The written notification shall inform the member and provider of the member's right to file a grievance in response to the outcome; (b) A CCO's refusal to permit a member-level Flexible Services request is not an “adverse benefit determination” within the meaning of OAR 410-141-3875. CCOs shall have written procedures to acknowledge the receipt, disposition, and documentation of each grievance from members, which shall be modelled on the procedures specified in 42 CFR 438.402-408 and OAR 410-141-3835 through 3915. (5) Community-level Flexible Services initiatives are community-level interventions that include, but are not necessarily limited to, members and are focused on improving population health and health care quality. CCOs shall designate a role for the community advisory council in community-level Flexible Services spending decisions. (6) CCOs shall submit their financial reporting for Flexible Services as directed through the CCO contract and in compliance with 42 CFR 438.8 Medical Loss Ratio (MLR). (7) Except as provided in section (4), members have no appeal or hearing rights in regard to a refusal of a request for Flexible Services.