Help Spread the Word: $1 Billion Opportunity Could Help Integrate Prevention Into Healthcare

Imagine a funding mechanism that would help pay for new health-care models that integrate prevention measures to keep people healthy with high-quality, cost-effective treatment. That’s one of the goals of a $1 billion funding program offered by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI). Grants will be awarded to support the piloting of new payment and healthcare delivery models that improve health, reduce costs, and deliver better care to people enrolled in government insurance programs. One key funding category will award grants to “models that improve the health of populations” and emphasize clinical-community partnerships, wellness, and prevention.

In order to be eligible to apply, applicants must submit a Letter of Intent by 3 pm EDT on June 28th. You can find the Letter of Intent online form here, and the FOA here (the description of the population health category is on page 8). If you are interested in applying, we would be happy to help you think through and develop your proposal and to provide resources that could assist you, using the time between June 28 and Aug. 15 when final applications are due.

The program will help support the kinds of prevention strategies that we and many of our partners have been developing for years. Last Friday, Prevention Institute, Public Health Institute and Trust for America’s Health co-hosted a webinar on the opportunities the CMMI funding program presents for advancing community prevention. It was attended by over 700 people.

Like the Prevention and Public Health Fund, this program offers a chance to shift our health system from a focus on sick-care to wellness and prevention. It offers an unprecedented opportunity to demonstrate that things like joint use of recreational space, bringing farmer’s markets and fresh food to neighborhoods that are “food deserts,” asthma prevention efforts and active transportation can keep people healthy and reduce the need for expensive treatment. It also requires that grantees can achieve real cost savings within three years and develop a stable payment system that can sustain the progress.

CMMI will consider proposals based on partnerships that could include community-based organizations and coalitions, research institutions and local governments as well as provider groups, hospitals, and insurers to support health improvement efforts that take place outside of clinic walls. We encourage you to talk with provider organizations and health advocates in your community to explore the possibility of submitting a joint proposal. If a large number of strong applications are submitted, it will reinforce that improving population health is a top priority. We hope you will consider applying, and please let us know if you do.

Please bear in mind that while the application process does require a substantial level of detail, it is doable, and that submitting a Letter of Intent doesn’t bind you to submit a full proposal or keep you from changing its focus but is required in order to have the option to apply. If you have any interest in this funding, we recommend that you submit a Letter of Intent to keep your options open. You can change the specifics of your proposal after the letter has been submitted.

Please share this opportunity widely. Forward this email, and help spread the word that this is an important way to build the evidence base for prevention.