The ultimate goal is to help healthcare organizations improve quality and balance their limited resources with AI-driven data feedback that makes sense to clinicians.
A new competition announced Wednesday by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services offers a grand prize of $1 million to the innovators who best demonstrate how artificial intelligence can be used to predict unplanned admissions and other adverse events.
The ultimate goal of the three-stage CMS AI Health Outcomes Challenge is to help healthcare organizations improve quality and balance their limited resources with AI-driven data feedback that makes sense to clinicians, according to the CMS announcement. The idea is that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Innnovation (CMMI), also known as the CMS Innovation Center—which was established by a Social Security Act amendment that was rolled into the Affordable Care Act—may use some solutions in testing new payment and delivery models.
The challenge is born of a partnership with the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) and the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, CMS said.
There are three stages:
- Launch stage: Participants submit applications via ai.cms.gov until 5 p.m. ET on June 18, 2019. Up to 20 participants will be selected to move on to the next stage, CMS said.
- Stage 1: Participants will use Medicare claims data sets to design and test proposed solutions between summer and fall 2019. Up to five will win $80,000 apiece and be selected to move on to the next stage.
- Stage 2: Finalists may request more Medicare claims data and refine their projects from winter 2019 through spring 2020. The runner-up will win up to $250,000, and the grand prize of up to $1 million will go to the winner overall in April 2020 (though dates may change).
More information on the challenge is available on the CMS website and www.cmschallenge.ai.
Steven Porter is an associate content manager and Strategy editor for HealthLeaders, a Simplify Compliance brand.