Get funding for your out-of-the-box EMS idea

By David Blevins

In the current economic climate, you may have been told that, because of budget cuts, your out-of-the box ideas will have to be packed up in the box from which they came.

Many of your ideas are designed around an EMS agency's ability to help your community become healthier; but until funding levels increase, these ideas remain just that, an idea.

Today is the day that the storage closet of ideas can be unloaded, and the boxes unpacked, because EMS agencies around the country will be able to apply for grant funding through the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation Health Care Innovation Challenge.

If you thought you were thinking big before, how about an additional one billion dollars being added to the funding matrix. That's right: I said one billion dollars is being released for applicants that can show they have the best, most out-of-the-box ideas to "implement the most compelling new ideas to deliver better health, improved care and lower costs to people enrolled in Medicare, Medicaid, and CHIP," according to Greg Margolis, Director of Health Systems and Health Care Policy at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services by email.

"In fact, expanded use of community-based paramedics to provide basic services to extend available primary care resources in rural communities," Margolis said.

Now, what do you have to do? Dust off the old thinking caps, put together your best plans and begin developing a letter of interest that will be collected by the December 19. The applications are due by the January 27.

The awards will be for any amount ranging from one $1 million dollars to $30 million dollars over a three year span. Even more good news is that the funding matrix will not require an organizational cost match to receive the funds.

While the EMS community is highly encouraged to apply, the application process is open to providers, payers, local government, public-private partnerships, faith-based organizations, and multi-payer collaboratives. The performance period for these grants is anticipated to extend from March 30, 2012 (anticipated notification date) through March 29, 2015.

"A billion dollars is a lot of money and this grant will fund many projects and I hope that many of them involve EMS and emergency care." Margolis said.

EMS agencies must prepare themselves, open those innovative boxes, and actually write for these funds. Here are the details:

Eligible Applicants:

• Provider groups (Physicians Offices)
• Health systems (Hospital Based groups)
• Payers and other private sector organizations
• Faith-based organizations (Religious organization delivering healthcare)
• Local governments
• Public-private partnerships
• For-profit organizations.
• EMS Agencies (For-Profit & Community Run)

Funding Priorities:

• Engage a broad set of innovation partners to identify and test new care delivery and payment models that originate in the field and that produce better care, better health, and reduced cost through improvement for identified target populations.
• Identify new models of workforce development and deployment and related training and education that support new models either directly or through new infrastructure activities.
• Support innovators who can rapidly deploy care improvement models (within six months of award) through new ventures or expansion of existing efforts to new populations of patients, in conjunction (where possible) with other public and private sector partners.

Proposal Requirements:

• Workforce Development and Deployment: Proposed models should include the development and/or deployment of health care workers in new, innovative ways. The review process will favor innovative proposals that demonstrate the ability to create the workforce of the future.
• Speed to Implementation: All proposed models must be operational or capable of rapid expansion within six months.
• Model Sustainability: All proposals are expected to define a clear pathway to sustainability, and should consider scalability and diffusion of the proposed model.

While these grants are a great source of funding, it is important that you look at all the information available for these funds, including the information related to being eligible for the grants, topics that are prohibited for grant funding (listed below) and you can find this information by going to www.grants.gov, viewing the fact sheet, or by reading the Funding Opportunity Announcement.

Prohibited Requests:

• Matching any other Federal funds.
• Services, equipment, or supports that are the legal responsibility of another party under Federal or State law (e.g., vocational rehabilitation or education services) or under any civil rights laws.
• To provide infrastructure for which Federal Medicaid matching funds are available at the 90 / 10 matching rate, such as certain information systems projects
• To supplant existing State, local, or private funding of infrastructure or services, such as staff salaries.

All application information must be submitted through the grants website being hosted at www.grants.gov with more information available to the potential grantee located at www.innovation.cms.gov. E-mails can be sent to innovationchallenge@cms.hhs.gov.

At the bottom of this page are some of the resources that can be used to get more information.

While you are looking at out-of-the-box methods for idea implementation, this grant should not be avoided.

The country is looking for new healthcare initiatives that will decrease overall cost of healthcare delivery, and they want new innovations to making the general population healthier.

Stand up for the opportunity to create a unique opportunity to help our communities during the non-emergency time as well as during those more emergent times.