CMS to fund $100M in Medicaid grants to encourage healthy living

CMS will distribute $100 million in new Medicaid grants to states to help run preventive medicine programs.

The grants, mandated by the Affordable Care Act, will offer Medicaid enrollees incentives to adopt healthy habits. They are part of an effort to prevent the number of people with chronic health conditions from growing bigger. Under the act, states can apply to CMS for grants to fund programs that change health risk and outcomes.

"With the right incentives, we believe that people can change their behaviors and stop smoking or lose weight," CMS Administrator Donald Berwick said in a statement. "Not only can preventive programs help to improve individuals' health, by keeping people healthy we can also lower the nation's overall health care costs."

The program focuses on tobacco use, which is behind more than 430,000 deaths a year; weight problems and obesity, which contribute to 300,000 deaths a year; heart disease; and diabetes, which accounts for $116 billion in total healthcare costs.

To learn more:
- read the HHS press release
- here's more information about the incentive grants
- read the Reuters article
- here's the Nurse.com article

Related Articles:
Conquering chronic disease with lifestyle medicine
Study: Chronic disease payment needs changes
Primary care MDs should manage chronic diseases