HHS Awards 26 Innovation Grants
The grants, which were created by the 2010 health law, were made to support projects that aim to improve coordination of care and reduce health care costs. News outlets also offer a look at some of the programs that will receive a funding boost.
Modern Healthcare: HHS Sees Health Care Innovation Awards Leading To Savings
A program to hire critical-care professionals to work in underserved areas in Georgia, a project to improve services for Rhode Island mothers who give birth to pre-term babies, and a plan to train paramedics and telehealth technicians to provide care for cardiovascular patients in Colorado are among the recipients of the first round of Health Care Innovation Awards that HHS announced Tuesday. The CMS Innovation Center will administer the awards, which were created by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and will provide up to $1 billion in grants to applicants who present the best ideas on how to deliver better care and lower costs for people enrolled in the Medicare, Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Programs (Zigmond, 5/8).
CQ HealthBeat: HHS Gives The Green Light To 26 Projects Stressing Health Care Innovation
A plan to improve dental care for American Indian mothers, children and diabetics living on reservations in South Dakota is among 26 innovation projects that the Department of Health and Human Services announced Tuesday it will fund. Delta Dental Plan will receive $3.4 million to train two dozen dental hygienists and community health workers to provide preventive care to patients on the reservations and coordinate their care, according to the HHS grant announcement (Norman, 5/8).
The Philadelphia Inquirer: Three Health Care Projects In Region Awarded Almost $10M
The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, part of the U.S Department of Health and Human Services, has awarded $122.6 million for 26 projects nationwide -- including $9.7 million for three in the Philadelphia region -- designed to improve care and reduce health-care costs in urban and rural areas. Among those receiving money in the first batch of such awards under the Affordable Care Act was Cooper University Hospital in Camden, [N.J.,] to expand the work of the Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers (Brubaker, 5/9).
Chicago Sun-Times: Michelle's Old Program Gets $5.9M Grant
A University of Chicago Medicine’s health program -- once headed by First Lady Michelle Obama when it was created, now run by Dr. Eric Whitaker, close friend of the First Couple -- was awarded a $5.9 million grant by the Department of Health and Human Services. The grant was announced on Tuesday; the U. of C.'s Urban Health Initiative was one of 26 programs winning federal Health Care Innovation grants -- funded through President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act (Sweet, 5/8).
Boston Globe: $11.6M Grants Go To Boston Programs Serving Elders, Homeless
Three Boston organizations will receive $11.6 million from the federal government to expand programs focused on keeping sick seniors out of the hospital, improving the health of children with asthma, and connecting people who are homeless with better medical care. The grants announced Tuesday by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services are among $123 million awarded under the Affordable Care Act to programs aimed at improving health care quality and lowering costs (Conaboy, 5/8).
New Orleans Times-Picayune: Ochsner Clinic Foundation receives Health Care Innovation Award
Utilizing the Innovation Award, Ochsner will focus on better serving almost 1000 acute stroke patients in Jefferson and St. Tammany parishes by employing two telemedicine enabled concepts called "Stroke Central" and "Stroke Mobile." These systems will enable care providers to monitor patients, evaluate outcomes, and check on medication and treatment adherence on a real-time basis both in the hospital and in the home (Barkoff, 5/8).
North Carolina Health News: Three NC Health Care Orgs Get Federal Innovation Grants
Diabetes patients in Southeastern NC counties, people with chronic pain in 16 Western NC counties, and homeless patients statewide will be getting a little more health care, thanks to grants announced today. ... One project will be administered through Duke University, where doctors, nurses and patient educators will identify patients with diabetes in Durham and Cabarrus Counties, and work with them to have better clinical outcomes (Hoban, 5/8).
Politico Pro: Innovation Awards Fail As Job Creators
Just how many jobs will be created as a result of the Health Care Innovation Awards, announced Tuesday as a part of President Barack Obama's "We Can't Wait" initiative? Well, dozens. About $2 million in funding awarded to a project at George Washington University is expected to result in just three new jobs, according to the project profiles listed on the website of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. Another $2.5 million to an awardee in Tennessee — Vanderbilt University Medical Center — will create a total of 4.6 new jobs (Smith, 5/9).