The Department of Health and Human Services announced $685 million in awards aimed at improving quality of care and reducing costs. The money will go to health care networks and professional organizations with 140,000 clinicians in all 50 states.
One of the largest grants of its kind by HHS, the outlay is aimed at implementing the Affordable Care Act’s goal of rewarding health care providers based on patient outcomes rather than for the volume of service they deliver.
“Supporting doctors and other health care professionals change the way they work is critical to improving quality and spending our health care dollars more wisely,” said HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell.
The awards will go to 29 medical group practices, regional health care systems, and regional extension centers, and 10 national organizations and health care professional associations.
The support given to doctors, nurses and other providers at the health care systems will include training in better ways to manage chronic disease and provide preventive care, improved screening and treatment of patients with mental health and substance abuse issues, better methods of data gathering, and using technology to improve communication with patients.
The 10 national health care associations will use the funds to provide continuing medical education; to align how different medical specialties handle clinical issues that are treated by multiple specialties; and to provide training in using data to improve care.
The associations receiving the awards include the American College of Emergency Physicians, the American College of Radiology, the National Rural Accountable Care Consortium, the American Board of Family Medicine, and the National Nursing Centers Consortium.