Baylor Scott & White Health, one of the largest nonprofit health systems in Texas, is joining more than a dozen health care providers across the nation to try to reduce the cost and improve the efficiency of caring for Medicaid patients. 

Called the “Medicaid Transformation Project,” the national effort is designed to “transform health care and related social needs” for the more than 67 million Americans who rely on Medicaid for care, according to Avia, a network used by hospitals and health systems that focuses on innovation. The official announcement of the project was expected Wednesday.

Medicaid, used largely by low-income patients, pregnant women and children, and the related Children’s Health Insurance Program or CHIP, provided health care coverage for more than 4 million Texans, as of May. 

While Medicaid represents a small portion of Baylor’s patient population — about 8 percent — rising costs and inefficiencies impact all health care consumers, said Jim Hinton, Baylor’s chief executive. 

“When people use health care inefficiently, it costs everybody more money,” said Hinton in an interview with The Dallas Morning News. “That’s the No. 1 issue in health care today, far and away.”

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Baylor health system to anchor national push to improve Medicaid patient care