We Can’t Wait: HHS announces first 26 Health Care Innovation awards
Programs will save estimated $254 million, improve health care
May 8, 2012
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today announced the first batch of organizations for Health Care Innovation awards. Made possible by the health care law – the Affordable Care Act – the awards will support 26 innovative projects nationwide that will save money, deliver high quality medical care and enhance the health care workforce. The preliminary awardees announced today expect to reduce health spending by $254 million over the next 3 years.
“We can’t wait to support innovative projects that will save money and make our health care system stronger,” said Secretary Sebelius. “It’s yet another way we are supporting local communities now in their efforts to provide better care and lower cost.”
The new projects include collaborations of leading hospitals, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, technology innovators, community-based organizations, and patients’ advocacy groups, among others, located in urban and rural areas that will begin work this year to address health care issues in local communities. This initiative allows applicants to come up with their best ideas to test how we can quickly and efficiently improve the quality and affordability of health care.
Projects include:
- Emory University’s collaboration with area health systems to train health professionals and use tele-health technologies to link critical care units in rural Georgia to critical care doctors in Atlanta hospitals. This project aims to save money and improve the quality of care by reducing the need to transfer patients from rural hospitals to critical care units in Atlanta;
- Courage Center, which is a program in Minneapolis-St. Paul serving adults with disabilities and complex medical conditions. The grant will enable Courage Center to save money and improve the quality of care by creating a patient-centered medical home focused on highest-cost Medicaid patients;
- A University Hospitals of Cleveland initiative to increase access and care coordination for children beyond the walls of the doctor’s office. This initiative aims to save money and improve the quality of care by extending the expertise of an elite children’s hospital to local pediatric practices treating children with complex chronic conditions and behavioral health problems with physician extension teams and tele-health.
Preliminary awardees were chosen for their innovative solutions to the health care challenges facing their communities and for their focus on creating a well-trained health care workforce that is equipped to meet the need for new jobs in the 21st century health system. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects the health care and social assistance sector will gain the most jobs between now and 2020.
Today’s awards total $122.6 million. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation within the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services at HHS administers the awards through cooperative agreements over 3 years.
For more information on the awards announced today, go to: http://innovations.cms.gov/initiatives/Innovation-Awards/Project-Profiles.html
To learn more about other innovative models being tested by CMS’ Innovation Center, please visit:www.innovation.cms.gov.
Health Care Innovation Awards: Project Profiles
The CMS Innovation Center has announced the first batch of preliminary awardees for the Health Care Innovation Awards. These organizations will implement projects in communities across the nation that aim to deliver better health, improved care and lower costs to people enrolled in Medicare, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), particularly those with the highest health care needs. Funding for these projects are for 3 years. This list will be updated as additional projects are selected. The next batch of preliminary awardees will be announced in early June 2012.
Note: Descriptions and project data (e.g. gross savings estimates, population served, etc.) are 3 year estimates provided by each organization and are based on budget submissions required by the Health Care Innovation Awards application process. While all projects are expected to produce cost savings beyond the 3 year grant award, some may not achieve net cost savings until after the initial 3-year period due to start-up-costs, change in care patterns and intervention effect on health status.
BETH ISRAEL DEACONESS
Project Title: “Preventing avoidable re-hospitalizations: Post-Acute Care Transition Program (PACT)”
Geographic Reach: Massachusetts
CENTER FOR HEALTH CARE SERVICES
Project Title: “A recovery-oriented approach to integrated behavioral and physical health care for a high-risk population”
Geographic Reach: Texas
COOPER UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL
Project Title: N/A
Geographic Reach: New Jersey
COURAGE CENTER D/B/A CAMP COURAGE
Project Title: “Courage Center”
Geographic Reach: Minnesota
DELTA DENTAL PLAN OF SOUTH DAKOTA
Project Title: “Improving the care and oral health of American Indian mothers and young children and American Indian people with diabetes on South Dakota reservations”
Geographic Reach: South Dakota
DUKE UNIVERSITY
Project Title: “From clinic to community: achieving health equity in the southern United States”
Geographic Reach: North Carolina and West Virginia
EMORY UNIVERSITY (CENTER FOR CRITICAL CARE)
Project Title: “Rapid Development and Deployment of Non-Physician Providers in Critical Care”
Geographic Reach: Georgia
FINITY COMMUNICATIONS, INC.
Project Title: “EveryBODY Get Healthy”
Geographic Reach: Oregon and Pennsylvania
GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
Project Title: “Using Telemedicine in peritoneal dialysis to improve patient adherence and outcomes while reducing overall costs”
Geographic Reach: Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, District of Columbia
HEALTH RESOURCES IN ACTION
Project Title: “New England asthma innovations collaborative”
Geographic Reach: Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont
JOSLIN DIABETES CENTER, INC.
Project Title: “Pathways to better health through a new health care workforce and community”
Geographic Reach: New Mexico, Pennsylvania, District of Columbia
KITSAP MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES
Project Title: “Race to health: coordination, integration, and innovations in care”
Geographic Reach: Washington
LIFELONG MEDICAL CARE
Project Title: “Health Care Innovation Challenge: LifeLong complex care initiative to achieve the Triple Aim”
Geographic Reach: California
MOUNTAIN AREA HEALTH EDUCATION CENTER
Project Title: “Regional integrated multi-disciplinary approach to prevent and treat chronic pain in North Carolina”
Geographic Reach: North Carolina
THE NATIONAL HEALTH CARE FOR THE HOMELESS COUNCIL
Project Title: “Community health workers and HCH: a partnership to promote primary care”
Geographic Reach: New Hampshire, Texas, Nebraska, Massachusetts, Illinois, Florida, North Carolina, California
OCHSNER CLINIC FOUNDATION
Project Title: “Comprehensive stroke care model through the continuum of care”
Geographic Reach: Louisiana
PITTSBURGH REGIONAL HEALTH INITIATIVE
Project Title: Creating a Virtual Accountable Care Network for Complex Medicare Patients
Geographic Reach: Pennsylvania
REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES
Project Title: “UCLA Alzheimer’s and dementia care: comprehensive, coordinated, patient-centered”
Geographic Reach: California
SOUTH COUNTY COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTER
Project Title: “Ravenswood Family Health Care Innovation Project”
Geographic Reach: California
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
Project Title: “CommunityRx system: linking patients and community-based service”
Geographic Reach: Illinois
UNIVERSITY EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES
Project Title: “Better health through social and health care linkages beyond the emergency department”
Geographic Reach: New York
UNIVERSITY HOSPITALS OF CLEVELAND
Project Title: “Transforming pediatric ambulatory care: the physician extension team”
Organizations: University Hospitals (UH) Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital at UH Case Medical Center partnering with Ohio Medicaid, CareSource, WellCare, 4 community mental health agencies, Cuyahoga Community College, Cleveland Schools, Head Start, InstantCare, and HealthSpot.
Geographic Reach: Ohio
UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO HEALTH SCIENCES CENTER
Project Title: “Leverage innovative care delivery and coordination model: Project ECHO”
Geographic Reach: New Mexico and Washington
UPPER SAN JUAN HEALTH SERVICE DISTRICT
Project Title: “Southwest Colorado cardiac and stroke care”
Geographic Reach: Colorado
VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER
Project Title: “Reducing hospitalizations in Medicare beneficiaries; a collaboration between acute and post-acute care”
Geographic Reach: Tennessee
WOMEN & INFANTS HOSPITAL OF RHODE ISLAND
Project Title: “Partnering with parents, the medical home and community provider to improve transition services for high- risk preterm infants in Rhode Island”
Geographic Reach: Rhode Island