The federal government has announced another round of awards to health care organizations that have designed innovative ways to provide better-quality care at a lower cost.
The latest group includes 27 health care organizations, receiving awards of $2 million to $24 million over 3 years.
"The Health Care Innovation Awards support our ongoing work to drive down health care costs while providing high-quality care," Sylvia Mathews Burwell, secretary of the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), said in a statement. "These awards advance innovative solutions in delivering and improving care from all across our nation."
Courtesy HHS
Sylvia Mathews Burwell
The awards are funded with up to $1 billion in money authorized by the Affordable Care Act. HHS began seeking awardees in late 2011, soliciting a broad range of proposals. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Innovation Center ultimately gave out 107 3-year awards in May and June 2012.
HHS started soliciting applicants for a second round of awards last year, this time looking for innovations that would focus on four areas: rapidly reducing costs in the outpatient and postacute setting for patients with Medicare, Medicaid, and/or the Children’s Health Insurance Program; improving care for populations with specialized needs; testing improved financial and clinical models for specific types of providers, including specialists; and models that improve the health of populations – such as a community, or those with specific diseases – through prevention, wellness, and comprehensive care that extends beyond the clinical setting.
The 27 new awardees named on July 9 include:
• $6 million for a care coordination project at the Boston Medical Center that will pair a complex care nurse, a care coordinator, and pediatricians in the community in Boston and Springfield, with the goal of providing a medical home for children with complex conditions.
• $10 million for the Detroit Medical Center, which will establish patient-centered medical home clinics next to emergency departments (EDs) at four inner-city hospitals, in an attempt to make primary care immediately available to patients seeking nonurgent care. The initial focus will be on improving diabetes or asthma, and targeting so-called ED superutilizers, who have 10 or more visits a year.
• $15 million for the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, Albuquerque, which will expand its 11-hospital telehealth system to 30 hospitals, to test providing remote emergency neurological consultation using inexpensive audiovisual equipment and software.
HHS does not anticipate making any further innovation awards, according to the agency.
Awardees still have to meet certain criteria to receive their funds. Final award notices will be sent in a few months.
On Twitter @aliciaault