Webinar Opportunity: Learn about $1 Billion in Innovation Awards Offered by the CMS Innovation Center

Prevention Institute, Public Health Institute and Trust for America’s Health will co-host a Dialogue4Health Webinar to provide information on a dynamic new funding opportunity offered by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI). The webinar will take place on Thursday, June 13, from 11:30 am to 1:00 pm PST (2:30 pm to 4:00 am EST). Click here to register for this webinar, titled $1 Billion in CMMI Innovation Awards: Opportunities for Advancing Community Prevention and Population Health.

The Innovation Awards will support public and private organizations to develop and test new payment and healthcare delivery models that improve quality and reduce the costs of treating people enrolled in Medicare, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. The funding announcement includes a category for “models that improve the health of populations.” This is a great opportunity to build momentum for the kind of health system transformation that will result in healthy people and places everywhere.

CMMI has invited a variety of innovators including providers, local governments, community-based organizations, payers, and health systems to apply, individually or as partners. During the webinar, speakers from the three organizations will discuss the opportunity for applicants to submit proposals to develop new payment models that advance and incentivize community prevention.

We hope this webinar will be a resource to potential applicants, as well as a forum for sharing and discussing cutting-edge ideas on what a community-centered health system could look like.

Trust for America's Health Report Urges Coordinated Approach on Preventive Care

The non-profit Trust for America's Health is calling for a revamp of public health management at the federal, state and local levels in a report that urges a greater focus on preventive care.

The report, called “A Healthier America 2013: Strategies to Move From Sick Care to Health Care in the Next Four Years,” argues that the different agencies in HHS involved with preventive healthcare should work more closely together to coordinate efforts, and existing attempts to become more coordinated have been too slow in creation.

At the local level, meanwhile, the Trust for America's Health authors recommend that public health departments take more responsibility for the public's health and strengthen their role as chief health strategist in the community.

Employers, through wellness programs and disease management programs, have an important role to play in preventive care coordination as well.

Adult Obesity Rates Could Exceed 60 Percent in 13 States by 2030

The number of obese adults, along with related disease rates and health care costs, are on course to increase dramatically in every state in the country over the next 20 years, according to F as in Fat: How Obesity Threatens America's Future 2012, a new report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Trust for America's Health.

The report forecasts adult obesity rates in each state by 2030 and the likely resulting rise in obesity-related disease rates and health care costs.

If states’ obesity rates continue on their current trajectories, the number of new cases of type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease and stroke, hypertension, and arthritis could increase 10 times between 2010 and 2020—and double again by 2030.

Medical costs associated with treating preventable obesity-related diseases could increase by up to $66 billion per year by 2030, and the loss in economic productivity could be as high as $580 billion annually.

The report also shows that states could prevent obesity-related diseases and dramatically reduce health care costs if they reduced the average body mass index (BMI) of their residents by just 5 percent by 2030. In that scenario, millions of Americans would be spared serious health problems, and the country could save billions of dollars in health spending.