As a follow up to a $1 billion initiative last year that funded projects across the nation designed to improve outcomes and save money in the healthcare system, the Centers for Medicaid & Medicare Services today announced a second, $1 billion round of Health Care Innovation Awards.
According to CMS, funding will be awarded to provider groups, health systems, payers, states, public-private partnerships, for-profit organizations or any other parties that have developed innovative payment and delivery models to improve population health, quality of care and cost efficiency.
Models funded through round two of the awards will focus on four areas:
- Reducing Medicare, Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program costs in outpatient settings
- Improving care for populations with specialized needs
- Testing approaches for providers to transform their financial and clinical models
- Improving the health of geographic, clinical or socioeconomic populations
CMS says new payment models are specifically important for this round and must be included as part of all applications, which will be accepted beginning June 14 through Aug. 15.
Last year’s awards funded 107 projects, including an expansion of the Partners for Kids program at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and a collaboration between the Trustees of Dartmouth College and 15 large health systems to hire patient and family activators.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
[Photo from BigStock photos]
