CMS Grants Providers $122M to Improve Care, Cut Costs

The largest sum, $12.8 million, goes to University Hospitals' (UH) Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital at UH Case Medical Center in Cleveland to improve care for 65,000 children with Medicaid who frequently access care through the emergency room. These children have chronic conditions and significant behavioral issues.

The intervention will hire and train more than 50 nurses, care coordinators,  and other health professionals to make referrals and provide care coordination through telemedicine and home nurse hotlines. It will also provide financial incentives to primary care physicians to reach performance quality performance targets. The doctors will offer extended hours and make extra efforts to reach these high-risk children.

The Ohio project expects to save $13.5 million in avoided care over the three year program.

The second largest sum, $10.7 million, goes to Emory University's Center for Critical Care for a telemedicine intensive care unit training and assistance program for 40 critical care professionals and 400 clinical, technical and administrative personnel. The idea is to enable more than 10,000 Medicare and Medicaid patients in rural communities who need ICU care to receive it in hospitals near their homes, but who can't now because their areas lack critical care doctors.