$36.3 Million Awarded to Reward Health Center Quality Improvements

Health centers across the country will receive $36.3 million in Affordable Care Act funding to invest in ongoing quality improvement activities, HHS announced on Tuesday.

The funding is also a reward for the 1,113 health centers that have proven to be leaders in such areas as chronic disease management, preventive care, and the use of electronic health records to report quality data.

“This funding rewards health centers that have a proven track record in clinical quality improvement, which translates to better patient care, and it allows them to expand and improve their systems and infrastructure to bring the highest quality primary care services to the communities they serve,” HHS Secretary Sylvia M. Burwell said in a statement. “With these funds, health centers in all 50 states will continue to provide access to high quality, comprehensive primary and preventive healthcare to the patients that need it the most.”

Health center quality leaders: 361 health centers received approximately $11.2 million for best overall clinical outcomes and the ability to focus on quality in all aspects of their clinical operations.

National quality leaders: 57 health centers received funding for approximately $2.5 million for exceeding national benchmarks for chronic disease management, preventive care, perinatal/prenatal care and demonstrating the critical role health centers play.

Clinical quality improvers: 1,058 health centers received approximately $17.7 million for at least a 10% improvement in clinical quality measures between 2012 and 2013.

Electronic health record reporters: 332 health centers received approximately $4.9 million for using EHRs to report clinical quality measure data on all of their patients.

The funds are being awarded for high levels of quality performance in 4 different categories:

California is receiving the most overall money with 188 awards totaling close to $5.1 million, followed by New York with 56 awards totaling nearly $2.8 million.

“These funds reward and support those health centers that have taken steps to achieve the highest levels of clinical quality performance and improvement,” Health and Resources Administration Administrator Mary K. Wakefield, PhD, RN, said.

See the full list of rewards here.