The Department of Health and Human Services announced today the Health Care Innovation Challenge from the CMS Innovation Center, a $1 billion program to test creative ways to deliver high quality medical care and reduce costs across the country.

Funded by the Affordable Care Act, the Health Care Innovation Challenge will award grants to applicants who will implement the most compelling new ideas to deliver better health, improved care and lower costs to people enrolled in Medicare, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, particularly those with the highest health care needs.

Award will be expected to range from approximately $1 million to $30 million over three years.  Applications are open to providers, payers, local government, community-based organizations and particularly to public-private partnerships and multi-payer approaches.   The Challenge will support projects that can begin within six months.  Each grantee project will be evaluated and monitored for measurable improvements in quality of care and savings generated.

For more information, including a fact sheet and the Funding Opportunity Announcement, please see the Health Care Innovation Challenge initiative webpage: http://innovations.cms.gov/initiatives/innovation-challenge/index.html