The Health and Human Services (HHS) today announced that it will invest $840 million over the next four years in a new initiative to help 150,000 clinicians access information and improve health outcomes. Through the Transforming Clinical Practice Initiative, the HHS will fund successful applicants who work directly with medical providers to rethink and redesign their practices, moving from systems driven by quantity of care to ones focused on patients’ health outcomes, and coordinated health care systems. Successful applicants will demonstrate the ability to achieve progress toward measurable goals, such as improving clinical outcomes, reducing unnecessary testing, achieving cost savings and avoiding unnecessary hospitalizations.
These applicants could include:
– group practices
– health care systems
– medical provider associations and others
The goal is to help clinicians develop successful strategies to share, adapt and further improve the quality of care they provide, while holding down costs. Strategies could include:
– Giving doctors better access to patient information, such as information on prescription drug use to help patients take their medications properly;
– Expanding the number of ways patients are able communicate with the team of clinicians taking care of them;
– Improving the coordination of patient care by primary care providers, specialists, and the broader medical community; and
Using electronic health records on a daily basis to examine data on quality and efficiency.
“The administration is partnering with clinicians to find better ways to deliver care, pay providers and distribute information to improve the quality of care we receive and spend our nation’s dollars more wisely,” said Secretary Burwell. “We all have a stake in achieving these goals and delivering for patients, providers and taxpayers alike.”
Key Benefits
By participating in the initiative:
– Practices will be able to receive the technical assistance and peer-level support they need to deliver care in a patient-centric and efficient manner, which is increasingly being demanded by health care payers and purchasers as part of a transformed care delivery system.
– Participating clinicians will thus be better positioned for success in the health care market of the future – one that rewards value and outcomes rather than volume.
HHS encourages all interested clinicians to participate in this initiative. For more information on the Transforming Clinical Practice Initiative, please visit: http://innovation.cms.gov/initiatives/Transforming-Clinical-Practices/
