Accountable Health Communities Model Announced

Accountable Health Communities Model Announced

The Department of Health and Human Services today announced a new funding opportunity of up to $157 million to test whether screening beneficiaries for health-related social needs and associated referrals to and navigation of community-based services will improve quality and affordability in Medicare and Medicaid.

The five-year program, called the Accountable Health Communities Model, is the first Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Innovation Center model to focus on the health-related social needs of Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, including building alignment between clinical and community-based services at the local level.

The Accountable Health Communities Model will support up to 44 bridge organizations, through cooperative agreements, which will deploy a common, comprehensive screening assessment for health-related social needs among all Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries accessing care at participating clinical delivery sites. The model will test three scalable approaches to addressing health-related social needs and linking clinical and community services – community referral, community service navigation, and community service alignment.

Please save the date for webinars on the AHC Model application process:

• Thursday, January 21, 2016 from 2:00pm – 3:30pm EST: Registration Required 
• https://engage.vevent.com/rt/cms2~012116
• Wednesday, January 27, 2016 from 3:00pm – 4:30pm EST: Registration Requiredhttps://engage.vevent.com/rt/cms2~012716

For more information on the AHC Model and upcoming webinars, please visit the AHC Model web page.