Telemedicine initiatives were a significant feature of the first round of projects announced by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI).Established by the Affordable Care Act, CMMI has been appropriated $10 billion over ten years to fund initiatives that foster health care transformation. The CMMI Health Care Innovation Awards provide grants to support the most compelling new ideas to deliver better health, improved care and lower costs to people enrolled in Medicare, Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program.
The leadership of the Center has been eager to include telemedicine as a priority since its inception. In response to an early request from the Center, ATA provided an analysis of some of the leading areas for the Center to fund.
The first round of Innovation Awards were just announced. Out of the total of 26 approved projects, 7 went to projects involving telemedicine for a total of $46 million in funding. The projects using telemedicine are projected to yield a combined 3-year savings of $76 million.
A description of the approved projects involving telemedicine is available here: www.americantelemed.org/files/public/policy/CMMI_Projects_Telemedicine.pdf.
