The $10 Billion Search for Healthcare Innovation

By Claire Thayer, August 12, 2014

The hunt is on for the discovery of innovative ideas to change the delivery of health care at all levels.   Kaiser Health News published a great summary of this massive quest in this article: Washington's $10 Billion Search For Health Care's Next Big Ideas.  Funded by the new health care law, experiments are taking place in every state in the country with oversight provided by the newly created Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation.  Kaiser Health News tells us that the center’s ten-year, $10 billion budget is the largest ever devoted to transforming care. In several states the office is working to overhaul medicine for nearly all residents — not just those with government Medicare and Medicaid coverage.

In addition to seeking out new payment and service delivery models, Congress has defined – both through the Affordable Care Act and previous legislation – a number of specific demonstrations to be conducted by CMS and categorizes these Innovation Models into seven areas:

• Accountable Care
• Bundled Payments for Care Improvement
• Primary Care Transformation
• Initiatives Focused on the Medicaid and CHIP Population
• Initiatives Focused on the Medicare-Medicaid Enrollees
• Initiatives to Speed the Adoption of Best Practices
• Initiatives to Accelerate the Development and Testing of New Payment and Service Delivery Models

So far, the American Hospital Association has received $75.8 million towards it’s innovation initiatives, Johns Hopkins Univeristy has received $32 million, followed by several others receiving close to $25 million. Here’s a look at the Top 10 Recipients of the new Innovation Dollars:

week, HealthSprocket, the home for healthcare lists of all kinds, featured a couple of its recent lists on health care innovation:

• Healthcare Innovation Thought Leaders to follow on Twitter
• Jenn Lisak: 3 Keys to Crowdsourcing That Drive Innovation in the Healthcare Industry

If you’re looking for an easy way to stay current on healthcare innovation trends and initiatives, Health Policy Publishing has a new monthly newsletter, Healthcare Innovation News, dedicated solely to this topic, with feature articles contributed by leading national experts and executives in the field; Thought Leader insights; Industry Briefs; profile of a key individual involved with healthcare innovation initiatives; plus more.

Readers can get a free sample issue of the 12-page monthly Healthcare Innovation News publication here. And, if you’re simply wanting to stay in the loop on news and other general announcements pertaining to healthcare innovation, the bimonthly Healthcare Innovation Bulletin, also available from Health Policy Publishing, is accessible for free here, at any time.