Texas long-term care becomes big winner in receipt of federal innovation grants

Over 2,000 hospitals will be targeted for readmission penalties starting Oct. 1

Texas has received a windfall of federal funding to test care coordination programs between acute and long-term care providers.

The funding was awarded through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Healthcare Innovation Awards, which seeks to support innovative care delivery models and cost-lowering strategies. The announcement of the second round of 81 Innovation Awards was made Friday; the first round was announced in May. CMS has doled out a total of 107 innovation grants.

One of the grant recipients was the University of North Texas Health Science Center, which, in partnership with Brookdale Senior Living, was awarded over $7 million to expand and test the Interventions to Reduce Acute Care Transfers (INTERACT) assessment tool for residents of assisted living and dementia care facilities.

Another grant worth over $3 million was awarded to CHRISTUS St. Michael Health System in Texarkana, TX, for a program that trains nurses to recognize early symptoms of congestive heart failure and sepsis in nursing home residents. The program's goal is to lower hospital readmissions from nursing homes by 20%.

Baylor College of Medicine and the Methodist Hospital Research System also received a grant worth more than $11 million to improve delirium-related care for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries — also an effort to lower readmissions and improve care coordination.

Many of the recipients throughout the United States received money to tackle hospital readmissions.

Click here for more about the award recipients.