Jessica E. Galarraga, MD, MPH, has been awarded an Early Career Research Development Grant from the Emergency Medicine Foundation (EMF) to continue her research evaluating the health care delivery effects of a population-based global budget revenue model. The grant will fund a two-year research project “Impact of Global Budgeting & Pay-for-Performance Incentives on Emergency Care Delivery.”
In 2014, the state of Maryland implemented the global budget revenue (GBR) program to align with the following aims as defined by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services: (1) reduce per capita costs, (2) enhance quality, and (3) improve population health. “Historically, MD has been the testing ground for new payment models in the United States. Maryland’s GBR program is among the most far-reaching alternative payment models using hospital settings as leaders for health care system improvement,” said Dr. Galarraga.
This grant will continue Dr. Galarraga’s research into the effects of GBR on emergency care delivery, utilization, and outcomes. This research will serve to fill a gap in knowledge on the impact of GBR, as CMS has recently approved the renewal of Maryland’s GBR program effective 2019 and started to implement similar programs in other states beginning in 2017.
This research with look specifically at the effects of GBR on the utilization and quality of hospital-based emergency care. It will also address issues related to transitions of care in emergency departments.
“The findings from this research will generate implications for health care practice leaders and policymakers on the effects of population-based health care payment reform on emergency care delivery. This will hopefully provide guidance on the continual evolution and advancement of payment reform efforts with global budgeting,” said Dr. Galarraga.
The EMF has awarded more than $16 million in research grants since its founding in 1972 by visionary leaders of the American College of Emergency Physicians. The mission of the EMF is to promote education and research that improve patient care, provide the basis for effective health policy, and develop career emergency medicine researchers.
Dr. Galarraga is a physician Investigator at the MedStar Health Research Institute, an attending physician with MedStar Emergency Physicians, and Instructor of Emergency Medicine at the Georgetown University. She was also the recipient of a grant from the EMF in 2016, along with funding from the MedStar Health New Investigators Grant fund in 2016 and 2017.
