Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has announced the recipients of 81 new Health Care Innovation Awards, which she says was made possible by the Affordable Care Act. The awards, HHS says, will support innovative projects nationwide designed to deliver high-quality medical care, enhance the healthcare workforce, and save money. Along with awards that HHS awarded last month, the agency has awarded 107 projects that intend to save the healthcare system an estimated $1.9 billion over the next three years.
“Thanks to the health care law, we are giving people in local communities the resources they need to make our health care system stronger,” Secretary Sebelius, said in a statement.
The award recipients are geographic diverse with projects located in urban and rural areas, all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. One of the projects includes the Sepsis Early Recognition and Response Initiative in Texas, from the Methodist Hospital Research Institute in Houston. The project identifies and treats sepsis before it progresses. Another one from Regional Emergency Medical Services in Nevada—along with the Renown Medical Group, the University of Nevada, the Reno School of Community Health Sciences, the Wahoe County Health District, and Nevada‘s Office of Emergency Medical Services—looks to establish a new non-emergency phone number for Community Health Early Intervention Teams that will help people get fast and appropriate care, reduce unnecessary hospitalizations, and lower costs.
HHS says awardees were chosen for their innovative solutions to the healthcare challenges facing their communities and for their focus on creating a well-trained health care workforce that is equipped to meet the need for new jobs in the 21st century health care system. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) at HHS contracted with an external organization with extensive experience in managing independent grant review processes to administer the award review process to ensure an objective review of each application.
The complete list of winners can be found here: innovations.cms.gov/initiatives/innovation-awards/project-profiles.html.
