HHS Offering $1 Billion to Encourage Better Medical Care that Saves Money
Agency says Health Care Innovation Challenge will create jobs, train workers
Nov. 15, 2011 The Department of Health and Human Services announced yesterday it is making available up to $1 billion
dollars to test creative ways to deliver high quality medical care and save money. Emphasis will be on innovative projects, and the Health
Care Innovation Challenge will also give preference to projects that rapidly hire, train and deploy health care workers.
Weve taken incredible steps to reduce health care costs and improve care, but we cant wait to do more, said HHS
Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
Both public and private community organizations around the country are finding innovative solutions to improve our
health care system and the Health Care Innovation Challenge will help jump start these efforts.
(Note: Read more about CMS Innovation Center below news story.)
Funded by the Affordable Care Act (sometimes referred to as Obamacare), the Health Care Innovation Challenge will award
grants in March to applicants who will implement the most compelling new ideas to deliver better health, improved care and lower costs to
people enrolled in Medicare, Medicaid and the Childrens Health Insurance Program, particularly those with the highest health care needs.
The Challenge will support projects that can begin within six months. Additionally, projects that focus on rapid
workforce development will be given priority when grants are awarded.
When I visit communities across the country, I continually see innovative solutions at the very ground level a large
health system working with community partners to decrease the risk of diabetes with nutrition programs or a church group that sends volunteers
to help home-bound seniors so they can live at home, said Donald M. Berwick, M.D., administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid
Services.
By putting more programs like this in place and more boots on the ground, these types of programs can truly transform
our health care system.
Awards will be expected to range from approximately $1 million to $30 million over three years. Applications are open to
providers, payers, local government, community-based organizations and particularly to public-private partnerships and multi-payer approaches.
Each grantee project will be evaluated and monitored for measurable improvements in quality of care and savings generated.
For more information, including a fact sheet and the Funding Opportunity Announcement, please see the Health Care
Innovation Challenge initiative web site at:
www.innovation.cms.gov
About the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation
The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation was established by the Affordable Care Act. The Center for Innovation is
a new engine for revitalizing and sustaining Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) and ultimately for
improving the health care system for all Americans. The Innovation Center has the resources and flexibility to rapidly test innovative care
and payment models and encourage widespread adoption of practices that deliver better health care at lower cost.
The Mission: better care and better health at reduced costs through improvement. The Center will accomplish these goals
by being a constructive and trustworthy partner in identifying, testing, and spreading new models of care and payment. We seek to provide
● Better health care: by improving all aspects of patient care, including Safety, Effectiveness, Patient-Centeredness,
Timeliness, Efficiency, and Equity (the domains of quality in patient care as defined by the Institute of Medicine).
● Better health: by encouraging healthier lifestyles in the entire population, including increased physical activity,
better nutrition, avoidance of behavioral risks, and wider use of preventative care.
● Reduced costs: by promoting preventative medicine, better record keeping, and improved coordination of health care
services, as well as by reducing waste, inefficiency, and miscommunication. These efforts will reduce the national cost of health care and
lower out-of-pocket expenses for all Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP beneficiaries.
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