On January 5, HHS announced a five-year $157 million payment model test called Accountable Health Communities (AHC). Funded under the authority of the CMS Innovation Center, the model will 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. Click here for the Fact Sheet.

There is a wonderful opportunity for your CAA to help the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) with an important part of the Accountable Health Communities Model, an intervention aimed at identifying and addressing the health-related social needs of community-dwelling Medicare & Medicaid beneficiaries.
 
A critical part of the effort is the participation of model partners, such as community service providers, clinical delivery sites, and state Medicaid agencies from around the country in the Accountable Health Communities Model (AHC Model). Involvement in the AHC Model gives model partners the chance to play a critical role in the model test, which will be important for determining the impact of health-related social needs on health care costs and utilization.

The Accountable Health Communities Model is currently accepting applications through March 31, 2016. The Model addresses a critical gap between clinical care and community services in the current health care delivery system by testing a systematic approach to identifying and addressing health-related social needs of Medicare & Medicaid beneficiaries. The Model awards cooperative agreements to organizations chosen to participate in the model test. Visit the CMS website to access the Letter of Intent and Request for Applications. You can email them at accountablehealthcommunities@cms.hhs.gov to get your questions answered. 

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CMS will host two webinars to provide an overview the FOA.  January 21 (2:00 ET/1:00 CT/12:00 MT/11:00 PT) and January 27 (3:00 ET/2:00 CT/1:00 MT/Noon PT).  To register for one of the two webinars, click here.

To access the FOA, click here.  CMS will award, through a competitive process, renewable one-year cooperative agreements to successful applicants (award recipients). Applicants may apply to participate in one or two tracks, but successful applicants will be selected to participate in a single track only. Each track will run for a five-year period. Parameters for each AHC model track are described in the Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA).  Applications are due March 31, 2016 but non-binding Letter of Intent (LOI) is due February 8, 2016

There will be up to 44 grantees, in three different funding tracks.  We encourage you to review the FOA as we see great alignment between the work being requested to assist Medicaid and Medicare beneficiaries with finding and accessing human/social services.

The work of Community Action falls squarely into the social determinants of health.  The work and evaluation being done through this proposal may impact how services that CAAs provide may be funded and supported in the future. 

We hope that your CAA will take a close look at this FOA and consider working with your health community to submit an application.  The Partnership may host a Community Action webinar on the FOA once the CMS webinars.