The Obama administration will give up to $1 billion to those who come up with the best ideas for improving care, lowering costs and creating jobs within the health sector.
Funded by the Affordable Care Act, the Health Care Innovation Challenge will award the money to innovative projects that will not only deliver better health care at lower costs, but will also hire and train workers.
The Obama administration is looking for innovative ideas to help people enrolled in Medicare, Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program.
Recommended For You
Though the grants are funded by the federal health reform law, the idea is part of President Obama's "We Can't Wait" initiative, a White House political tactic that shows the administration is making efforts to create jobs and boost the economy.
"We've taken incredible steps to reduce health care costs and improve care, but we can't wait to do more," said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. "Both public and private community organizations around the country are finding innovative solutions to improve our health care system and the Health Care Innovation Challenge will help jump start these efforts."
The Department of Health and Human Services will begin awarding grants next March and will support projects that can begin within six months. The program will favor projects that can quickly build a work force.
Between $1 million and $30 million will be given away over three years, according to HHS. Applications are open to providers, payers, local government, community-based organizations and particularly to public-private partnerships and multi-payer approaches. Each grantee project will be evaluated and monitored for measurable improvements in quality of care and savings generated.
"When I visit communities across the country, I continually see innovative solutions at the very ground level – a large health system working with community partners to decrease the risk of diabetes with nutrition programs or a church group that sends volunteers to help home-bound seniors so they can live at home," said Donald M. Berwick, M.D., administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. "By putting more programs like this in place and more "boots on the ground," these types of programs can truly transform our health care system."
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
