The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is seeking applicants for an innovative, five-year demonstration project to study the relationship between clinical care and community services.  

The Accountable Health Communities (AHC) model will test whether systematically identifying and addressing the health-related social needs of beneficiaries’ impacts total health care costs, improves health, and quality of care.  Participants will focus on beneficiary needs regarding housing, food insecurity, utility needs, interpersonal violence, and transportation.  CMS will evaluate the effectiveness of intervention focused on social needs as it relates to the impact on total health care costs, inpatient and outpatient health care utilization, and overall  health and quality of care for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries. 

Eligible applicants are community-based organizations, healthcare provider practices, hospitals and health systems, institutions of higher education, local government entities, tribal organizations and for-profit and not-for-profit local and national entities with the capacity to develop and maintain a referral network with clinical delivery sites and community service providers.  Interested applicants may submit a non-binding Letter of Intent by February 8, 2016 and must submit their application by March 31, 2016.  

Interested organizations are encouraged to register for one of CMS’ informational webinars on January 21 or January 27.  Complete information on the demonstration is available through the CMS ACH Website.