Letters of intent are due today from those interested in participating in the CMS Innovation Center's Health Care Innovation Challenge, which promises up to $1 billion for new ideas that improve care, shift incentives and help train a newly-focused healthcare workforce.
CMS announced the contest, which is aimed at lowering costs for people enrolled in Medicare, Medicaid and CHIP, especially those with the highest health care needs, in November.
[See also: HHS launches $1B innovation initiative.]
Anyone wishing to take part in the Health Care Innovation Challenge must first submit a non-binding letter of intent – meant to help CMS determine the expertise and personnel necessary to appropriately review applications and issue awards. Letters are due by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on Monday, December 19. Failure to submit one will disqualify the application from that organization from being reviewed during the first round of funding.
On a webinar this past Friday, CMS officials highlighted how the initiative is helping "rubber hit the road" when it comes to health reform, seeking out new and creative ways to design care models and train the health workforce.
The grant funding – with potential awards ranging from $1 million to $30 million is meant to spur creativity as individuals and group "do the hard work" of changing healthcare.
There's a "long way to go," said Dorothy Teeter, senior advisor for policy and programs at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. So this open solicitation, seeking to identify a range of innovative service delivery and payment models in local communities nationwide is meant to "accelerate system transformation."
There's "no time to lose," said Teeter – which is why the Innovation Challenge is looking for solutions that can be rapidly deployed, within six months.
Moreover, she said, successful proposals will have a "clear path to sustainability," and will demonstrate care improvement within six months of implementation.
CMS is seeking proposals that focus on high-cost and high-risk populations: people: multiple chronic conditions, mental health or substance abuse issues, poor health status due to socioeconomic and environmental factors, or the frail elderly, said Teeter.
Toward that end, it's especially keen on "new types of infrastructure," incorporating registries, medication reconciliation systems, shared decision-making systems, innovation or improvement networks and community collaboratives
Also critical is the need to start building the "workforce of the future" that will be delivering and supporting new care models. As it seeks new roles and skills for existing health professionals, new types of workers to support care transformation and team-based models to better utilize a mix of health providers, Teeter said training programs are eligible for funding – "but should be intensive, brief programs connected to the model being tested."
CMS is also interested in ideas that would inform future benefit design or payment approaches, she noted, looking for sustainable strategies including public-private partnerships, multi-payer approaches, and service delivery agreements with entities such as ACOs or advanced primary care models or mental health/public health systems.
[See also: CMS announces new ACO initiatives.]
Eligible organizations Include for-profit and not-for-profit organizations, and more than one application can be submitted by the same entity.
Local governments are eligible, as are applicants participating in other CMS programs. State universities and state-owned hospitals are eligible – but states themselves, and state agencies, are not.
Ineligible projects include those that duplicate or augment current CMS demonstrations or programs, funding for clinical trials of drugs/devices and refunding prior funding cuts.
"Our goal is to find successful models in the field and then take those to scale," said Erica Tibbals, Health Insurance Specialist at Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation.
Important dates for the Innovation Challenge:
- Letters of intent are due today, Dec. 19, by 11:59 p.m.
- Applications, submitted electronically at grants.gov, are due Friday, Jan. 27, by 11:59 p.m.
- Awards will be granted to selected applicants in two cycles: March and August 2012.
All applicants must obtain a Dun and Bradstreet Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number at dunandbradstreet.com, and register in the Central Contractor Registration database at ccr.gov.
Learn more at innovations.cms.gov