North Dakota Department of Health and Human Services Receives National Honor: Hospital Value-Based Purchasing Medicaid Program Wins Spotlight Award
The North Dakota Department of Health and Human Services announced on October 22 that it has received the 2026 'Spotlight Award' from the National Association of Medicaid Directors, recognizing the innovative practices of its hospital value-based purchasing program.
According to the department's website that day, the award recognizes North Dakota's hospital value-based purchasing program, which uses a performance-based payment framework that ties hospital payments to care quality to improve service quality and health outcomes for Medicaid members, rather than paying purely by volume of services.
The National Association of Medicaid Directors is the national organization of state Medicaid program directors, and its Spotlight Award honors state programs that excel in Medicaid management innovation. North Dakota's award signals national peer recognition for linking payment methods to quality goals.
The department said value-based purchasing is a key part of North Dakota's recent push to shift its Medicaid system from 'paying for volume' to 'paying for quality.' The award affirms the state's continued use of payment levers to drive care quality improvements, and its experience may serve as a reference for other states.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 北达科他州议会大厦 / North Dakota State Capitol, Bismarck — Indies1, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
