Chief Bruce Stedman was our guest speaker on Friday, August 4th talking about a community paramedic program offered by Medicaid under the Accountable Communities Health demonstration, the State of Washington is anticipating receiving $1.2 billion in federal investment in return for rewarding high-quality care. The purpose of the grant is for EMS to change the way they deliver services. Stedman commented that 85% of the time, fire departments are doing EMS services in the communities throughout the State of Washington. Looking for ways to provide services that will lead to a healthier Washington.
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Medicaid will measure access to primary care, acute care, prevention and chronic care. With value-based purchasing the state pays for healthier patients, not the volume of services. The community paramedic will be based on a service designed for health care cost reduction, a service to increase continuity of care between providers and specified response to health care gaps in our individual communities.
There are nine ACH Districts in Washington State. ACH is a five year plan. The goal is that Washington's annual health care growth will be less than the national trend, and that nearly all health care payments are tied to quality and value. The ACH staff is composed of eleven employees. Stedman and his Executive Assistant had to write the 12 page proposal in 48 hours. Effectively purchasing more health for less. The five counties involved in our ACH District are San Juan, Island, Skagit, Whatcom & Snohomish, 19 ALS Service providers and countless partnerships.
They want and would need the following: 27 community paramedics, four lead medics, a Fall Prevention Specialist, Opioid/Addiction Specialist, Child Centered Medic which would serve all of the demographics and needs in Five Counties consisting of 1,183,583 citizens, covering 7,757 square miles and eight Federally recognized tribes. So the need is huge and the challenge is far greater. Stedman has spent a great deal of time since April honing the request and the application to move forward. There is so much more to the program that is difficult to put in an article. The end result if adopted by third-party providers is an estimated savings of $1.2 billion.
Stedman has been the Chief of the Arlington Fire Department since December 2010. Prior to that he served with the City of Alhambra, CA Fire Department for 31 years retiring as Chief.