The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has awarded $1.3 million in grants to healthcare collaboratives in 16 cities to assess ways to pay for healthcare services based on quality rather than volume, reports AHA News Now.
The money is being used to fund the third phase of the Aligning Forces for Quality Initiative. It will focus on creating new care and payment models for physicians, hospitals and other providers. Participating cities include Boston, Albuquerque, Cleveland, Detroit and Kansas City.
"Healthcare costs are growing at a rate that places enormous burdens on our country's economy, yet despite these high costs, people are still not always getting the right care at the right time," said Robert Graham, M.D., the project's national program director.
"We need better methods for determining how our healthcare system can deliver value that is worth the investment-value to patients, physicians, nurses, hospitals, health plans, businesses and government. And we need to learn how are these groups can work together so that this system is sustainable."
For more:
- read the AHA News Now article
- read the RWJF press release