White House Launches $1B Health-Care Innovation Effort

The Obama administration on Wednesday announced a $1 billion initiative to fund innovations in federal healthcare programs aimed at cutting costs while improving the health results.

The Department of Health and Human Services said the money will be used to award and evaluate projects that test new payment and delivery models for federal programs including Medicare, Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program.

The announcement marks the second round of innovation initiatives for the administration under President Barack Obama's 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

The government is looking for models that can quickly cut costs in outpatient or post-acute settings, improve care for people with special needs, transform healthcare providers' financial and clinical models or improve health conditions by clinical category, geographic area or socioeconomic class.

The application period runs from June 14 to August 15.