Date: March 8, 2021
To: All Medical Assistance Program Providers
Re: Healthcare Transformation Collaboratives
Program Application for Funding Awards
HFS
is announcing the Healthcare Transformation Collaboratives program. As outlined
in Public
Act 101-650 and SB
1510 passed in January 2021, the program is designed
to improve healthcare outcomes, reduce healthcare disparities, and realign
resources in distressed communities throughout Illinois. In particular, the
program seeks to increase access to community-based services, preventive care,
obstetric care, chronic disease management, and specialty care in these
communities.
This program makes available as much as $150 million per
fiscal year beginning in State Fiscal Year 2021. This funding is available
to collaborations between care providers, including preventative care, primary
care specialty care, hospital services, mental health and substance abuse
services, and community-based entities that address the social determinants of
health. Priority will be given to collaborations that include safety net
hospitals or critical access hospitals,
as well as culturally-competent, minority-owned or -controlled partners.
Applications from all types of provider collaborations and from communities
across the state will be considered over the coming months and years.
Proposals from collaborations seeking funding in the first round
of awards for transformation funds are due no later than April 9, 2021. This
will be followed with a second round of applications due September 1, 2021.
There will be opportunities to apply for funding in subsequent years as well.
For the September deadline and future funding cycles, HFS will be offering
consulting services to assist collaborations with applications. Please continue
to watch our Healthcare Transformation webpage for further information.
The application for those wishing to apply for funding April 9 is
available on the Department’s Healthcare
Transformation webpage. The Department encourages
only those collaborations with well-developed plans to apply for the first
round of funding. The application for those seeking consulting services to
prepare an application for the second round of funding will also soon be posted
on the Healthcare
Transformation webpage .
HFS is seeking to fund collaborations between care providers and
community-based entities that will:
- improve health outcomes and
reduce healthcare disparities
- improve the integration,
efficiency, and coordination of care across provider types and levels of
care
- increase access to preventive,
primary or specialty care in the community
- address specific social
determinants of health that impact access to care and impact health
outcomes
Applicants must:
- demonstrate that the proposed
project addresses community needs and desires established via direct
community input
- propose quality metrics to
track impact of the proposed intervention and for which the project will
be accountable
- incorporate racial equity into
the proposed project / collaboration
- benchmark current job levels in
the community and track the continued maintenance and improvement of these
levels (proposals that include retraining, innovative ideas or other
workforce development are of particular interest to HFS)
- demonstrate how initial project
funded by HFS through this program will move to a place of financial
sustainability in the future without subsidization by transformation funds
- describe the governance
structure of your collaboration, showing how decisions are made and how
the collaborators intend to monitor and enforce adherence to the policies
and practices put in place
The bulleted lists above outline the criteria by which
applications will be evaluated for funding.
The Department intends to host a webinar
on Friday, March 12, 2021 for those interested in learning more about
Healthcare Transformation Collaboratives. You may register for the webinar here.
Kelly Cunningham, Administrator
Division of Medical Programs
