Two Washington Projects Receive CMS Health Care Innovation Awards Grant Funding

In the first round of grant announcements, its exciting to see that Washington state will be a participant in ground breaking work to improve the healthcare system, avoid unnecessary hospitalizations, and test the cost-savings of varying programs serving those with Medicare, Medicaid and CHIP.

Kitsap Mental Health Services will train approximately 130 health care workers and create 12.5 jobs, focusing on integrating care for one thousand severely mentally ill or severely emotionally disturbed adults and children, many of them Medicare, Medicaid, and/or CHIP beneficiaries.  A $1.8 M grant is expected to save $5.8 M over a three year period.

Washington has participated for the past two yeas in a program called ECHO, partnering with the University of Mexico Health Sciences Center, and will continue to do so under an $8.4 M grant, estimated to save $ 11.1 M over a three year period.  The intervention will identify 5000 high cost, high-utilization, high-severity patients and uses a team of “primary care intensivists,” specifically trained in care for complex patients with multiple chronic diseases, working in concert with area managed care organizations and care providers, with estimated savings of over $11 million during the funding time frame.