HHS Awards $36M to Health Centers for Quality Improvement

On Tuesday, HHS announced it has awarded $36.3 million to more than 1,000 U.S. health facilities that have significantly improved patient care quality, The Hill reports.

Facilities that received funding demonstrated "high levels of quality performance" in line with the Affordable Care Act's goal of improving care and reducing costs, according to an HHS release (Ferris, The Hill, 12/9).

Specifically, HHS awarded:

• $17.7 million to 1,058 health centers that had at least a 10% improvement in clinical quality measures between 2012 and 2013;
• $11.2 million to the 361 health centers that ranked among the top 30% of all health centers for "best overall clinical outcomes";
• $4.9 million to 332 centers that used electronic health records to report clinical quality information on all patients; and
• $2.5 million to 57 health centers that surpassed national benchmarks for managing chronic disease, preventive care, perinatal and prenatal health care, among other categories (HHS release, 11/9).

HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell said the grants will enable recipients "to expand and improve their systems and infrastructure to bring the highest quality primary care services to the communities they serve" (The Hill, 12/9).