For Immediate Release
Date: October 23, 2017
Contact: Jonathan Gilad
Phone: 571-989-4173
Email: Jgilad@ahqa.org
AHQA Celebrates Quality Improvement Networks on The Awarding of Special Innovation Grants by CMS
McLean, VA – Quality Improvement Networks (QINs) from across the country have been awarded 14 highly competitive Special Innovation Project (SIP) contracts from the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). SIPs are locally and/or regionally focused and seek to utilize innovative solutions to address a variety of health issues ranging from the opioid crisis to mental and behavioral health. Projects also prioritize patient- and family-centered solutions to health issues, with an emphasis on patient experience and health challenges specific to rural and urban areas.
The 14 QINs, which consist of regionalized Quality Innovation Organizations (QIOs), have a long history of successful work with CMS to improve health outcomes and reduce costs for Medicare patients. QIOs are leaders in finding inventive solutions to improve the quality of care for Medicare beneficiaries and adapt proven health solutions to better meet the needs of local communities.
“This latest round of SIP awards will allow for continued innovation and creativity within healthcare quality improvement—which really strikes at the heart of the QIO program,” said Alison Teitelbaum, executive director of the American Health Quality Association (AHQA), the leading trade association for the QIN-QIOs. “Many of these groundbreaking projects are in areas that support CMS’s strategic priorities, such as tackling opioid abuse and misuse, and they will be vital components in helping CMS reach its strategic goal.”
SIP award-earning projects and their respective AHQA member SIP contract recipients are as follows:
- Addressing Opioid Misuse and Behavioral Health Disorders Using Innovative Interventions in Southwestern Ohio (Health Services Advisory Group (HSAG))
- Chronic Kidney Disease Awareness and Prevention Program (CKD APP) (IPRO)
- Early Diagnosis and Treatment of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) via an Integrated, Systemic Approach Targeting At-Risk Beneficiaries with Diabetes and/or Hypertension (TMF)
- EMS Integrated Health Care (Quality Insights)
- Fighting Back Against Opioid Misuse – A Community Approach (QSource)
- Improving Care Outcomes for Medicare Beneficiaries with Mental Illness and Opioid Use (GMCF)
- Improving COPD-Related Health Care Utilization via the Use of a COPD Rescue Pack (TMF)
- Local Quality Improvement Interventions: The Implementation of an Intervention to Improve the Ability of Rhode Island Nursing Homes to Serve Residents with Behavioral Health Needs (HealthCentric)
- Opioid Safety: A Community Pharmacy Intervention to Prevent Opioid Adverse Drug Events (IPRO)
- Patient, Family and Emergency Medical Service Early Recognition of Sepsis in Rural Communities: Critical to Reducing Progression of Sepsis Harm and Death (Great Plains)
- Reducing Opioid Harms in Older Adults through Clinic Training and Technical Assistance (HealthInsight)
- Special Innovation Project – Opioids Naloxone (GMCF)
- The Preference-Aligned Communication and Treatment (PACT) Project (Telligen)
Since 1984 the American Health Quality Association (AHQA) has represented Quality Improvement Organizations (QIOs) and other professionals working to improve heath care quality and patient safety. AHQA is an educational, not-for-profit national membership association dedicated to promoting and facilitating fundamental change that improves the quality of healthcare in America.