Xavier Becerra United States Secretary of Health and Human Services | Official Website
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) to establish state-based Healthcare Extension Cooperatives. This initiative represents a significant investment aimed at accelerating the implementation and dissemination of patient-centered outcomes research (PCOR) into healthcare delivery, focusing on improvements in healthcare policy, payment, and practice, as well as reducing healthcare disparities among Medicaid recipients, the uninsured, and medically underserved populations.
“Every American should be able to get the care they need - and every hospital and health facility should have the best available tools to do the job. By supporting states and local health care systems with the best data and research, we can achieve better health outcomes and advance health equity,” said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra. “HHS is making this important new investment to improve the delivery of care for people who are underinsured or medically underserved, with an initial emphasis on behavioral health. This is all part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s ongoing effort to make smart investments that help people get innovative, high-quality care.”
“Recognizing that all health care is local, with wide variation based on geography and demographics, AHRQ’s Healthcare Extension Cooperatives provide scaffolding to local health care transformation by fostering improvements in health care policy, payment, and practice,” said AHRQ Director Dr. Robert Valdez. “This initiative aims to use data, PCOR clinical evidence, and stakeholder input to align payment and other incentives, reduce local barriers, and address urgent health care issues, leading to improved health care by reducing the time from scientific innovation to routine clinical practice.”
AHRQ plans to award up to 15 grants over five years for establishing state-based Healthcare Extension Cooperatives. The initial focus will be on behavioral health initiatives involving key stakeholders such as Medicaid managed care organizations; clinicians from safety-net healthcare organizations; patients; families; caregivers; community organizations; policymakers; payment entities; research institutions; among others.
These cooperatives will work towards building capacity for implementing patient-centered evidence-based healthcare improvements through training tools while conducting evaluations of their activities. They will also provide a support structure ensuring these activities are integrated.
In addition to this NOFO announcement for state-based cooperatives focused on behavioral health:
1. An upcoming NOFO will support a National Coordinating Center (NCC), which will offer extensive resources alongside collaborative guidance.
2. Another NOFO will establish an independent National Evaluation Center (NEC), tasked with understanding variations in extension services across cooperatives while assessing impact equity models documenting barriers/facilitators within service delivery contexts.
The three components together aim at significantly reducing evidence generation timelines translating into clinical practices benefiting from this funding provided via Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Trust Fund established under Section 6301 Affordable Care Act advancing medical decision-making evidences.
Applications are open until December 12th posted online at https://grants.gov further details accessible via wwwahrqgov
