Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation: Another $1 Billion Now Available for Health Care Innovation Awards

The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation has announced the availability of a second $1 billion for Health Care Innovation Awards to improve health care quality while reducing health care costs.  Applicants may seek funding for innovative quality improvement/cost reduction projects for three years, and must make a case that overall health care costs will be less than the amount of the award.

There are four specific models of innovation that will be funded in this second round:

1. Models that will rapidly reduce Medicare, Medicaid and/or CHIP costs in outpatient settings and/or post-acute care settings. Priority areas include diagnostic services, outpatient radiology, high-cost physician-administered drugs, home based services, therapeutic services and post-acute services.
2. Models that improve care for populations with specialized needs. Priority areas include high-cost pediatric populations, children in foster care, adolescents in crisis, and persons with Alzheimer’s disease, HIV/AIDS, serious behavioral health needs, or requiring long-term support and services.
3. Models that transform the financial and clinical models for specific types of providers and suppliers. Priority areas include models designed for specific physician specialties (e.g., oncology or cardiology), and pediatricians who provide services to children with complex medical issues.
4. Models that improve the health of populations – defined geographically, clinically, or by socioeconomic class – through activities focused on prevention, wellness, and comprehensive care that extends beyond the clinical service delivery setting and addresses the social determinants of health. Priority areas include, but not limited to, models that develop comprehensive population-based interventions, integrate clinical care with community-based interventions that focus on the underlying determinants of health, and integrate behavioral health care and primary care.

Required letters of intent are due June 28, full applications are due August 15, and projects that receive funding will begin April 1, 2014.  The first $1 billion was awarded to 107 projects in May and June 2012, with awards ranging from $1 million to $26.5 million over their three-year project periods.

The full Funding Opportunity Announcement is here:

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