The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will be hosting a Care Innovation Summit from 8:30am – 6:00pm today in Washington D.C. to assemble representatives of health professions to discuss opportunities for collaboration that will drive action towards better care and better health at lower cost through continuous improvement. Among today’s featured speakers are Acting Administrator of CMS and the Director of the CMS Innovation Center.

There are numerous ways to follow the activities and conversations of today’s summit:

Watch it Live Online

The Care Innovations Summit will be broadcast online in its entirety. Tune into hcidc.org throughout the day Thursday to watch.

Tweet with #cisummit

Join the twitter conversation, and help to take the dialogue even further. Connect fellow tweeters, or just follow the #cisummit conversation.

What:                   Care Innovation Summit 

When:                  Thursday, January 26, 2012 

                             8:30 AM – 6:00 PM 

To view a full list of speakers, details of the summit and the agenda for the day, please visit:  hcidc.org

Last week, Congress passed the FY 2012 Omnibus Appropriations Act, a bill that will fund the Health Centers Program to not only maintain current federal grant support for ALL existing Health Centers, it will also provide enough additional funding to extend access to care to nearly 1.5 million additional people in need of care. In the simplest of terms, the Health Centers Program will receive a nearly $200 million increase to grow and expand care to those most in need.

This legislation will allow HHS to fund applications from among the more than 900 applications submitted in Dec 2010.  These applications remain active until summer 2012.  HRSA has not announced how many will be funded nor when it will announce the new awards.  It is unlikely that another NAP opportunity will become available until the last quarter 2012, for funding in FY 2013.

To read the full statement from NACHC President and CEO, Tom Van Coverden, visit the NACHC website.

Last fall, CMS announced a new Advance Payment Model for physician-based and rural ACOs participating in the Shared Savings Program.  ACOs selected to participate in the Advance Payment Model will receive upfront payments that will be recouped from the shared savings they earn. CMS will begin 2012 with an Open Door Forum on January 5, 2012 to review the Advance Payment ACO Model and the application template.  A slideshow presentation will be posted prior to the forum on the Advance Payment Model ACO Application Information webpage. Applications for an April 1, 2012 start will be accepted beginning January 3 through February 1, 2012.

Details about the forum are below:

Title:                                     Advance Payment ACO Model

Date:                                     Thursday, January 5th, 2012

Time:                                     2:30 PM – 4:00 PM EST

Call Info:                               1-800-837-1935    Conf ID 39623933

This morning CMS provided a template of the application for the new Advanced Payment ACO Model announced by the CMMI in the fall. Through the Advance Payment Model, selected  physician-based and rural ACOs participating in the Shared Savings Program will receive advance payments that will be recouped from the shared savings they earn.

You can access the application template, eligibility criteria and information on the application process through the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation’s Advanced Payment Model Application Information webpage.

Note that online applications for the first round (an April 1, 2012 start date) will be available January 3, 2012. These applications are due February 1, 2012. The second round of applications for a July 1, 2012 start date begins March 1, 2012.