$1 Billion Health Care Innovation Awards Initiative Includes Opportunities for Models to Improve Care for PLWHA

Content From: AIDS.govPublished: May 22, 20132 min read

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Last week, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced a nearly $1 billion initiative that will fund grant awards and evaluation to build on the Obama administration’s work to transform the health care system by delivering better care and lowering costs for taxpayers and patients. The Health Care Innovation Awards are funded by the Affordable Care Act and will be administered by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Activities supported under this funding opportunity announcement (FOA) are intended to test new payment and service delivery models that will ensure better care and lower cost for Medicare, Medicaid, and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) enrollees.

CMS is seeking new models in four categories – all areas that have a high likelihood of driving health care system transformation and delivering better outcomes for Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP beneficiaries. One category is “models that improve care for populations with specialized needs.” The FOA specifically identifies persons living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) as among the priority populations in this category, in particular spotlighting efforts to link and retain PLWHA in care and improve medication adherence that leads to viral suppression (adolescents in crisis, persons requiring long-term support and services, and persons with serious behavioral health needs are others included among the priority populations under this category).

“These awards will continue our work to drive down health care costs while providing high quality care to all Americans, and I’m excited to see the innovative ideas these applicants will bring to the table,” Secretary Sebelius said. “Organizations from the public and private sectors throughout the country are finding creative solutions to our health care system challenges and these awards will continue to stimulate these ideas.”

Please read the fact sheet and FOA, available at the Health Care Innovation Awards initiative website at https://innovation.cms.gov/initiatives/Health-Care-Innovation-Awards/.