Innovation Center to-do list could include Medicaid; PCORI announces grant application deadlines

In a pair of articles, CQ HealthBeat reports on the role the Innovation Center could play in reshaping Medicaid and the latest on the timeline for grants from the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute.

CQ HealthBeat: MACPAC Commissioners Nudge Innovation Center Official On Medicaid Policies
Sean Cavanaugh, a top official at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, confirmed for members of a government commission Tuesday that some demonstration projects that could reshape Medicaid could be expanded nationally. At the meeting of the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission (MACPAC), which is charged with advising Congress and government officials on best practices for the programs, Cavanaugh said the innovation center might be willing to test some of the policy changes that the commissioners advocate (Adams, 5/22).

CQ HealthBeat: PCORI Sets First Round Grant Deadline
The Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute, a nonprofit that awards grants for such projects as comparative effectiveness studies, announced Tuesday that the application deadline for $96 million in an initial round of grants is July 31. The grants will be awarded for four topic areas including research that would: pit one type of treatment against another for the same disease; improve the health care system; better communicate the results of research; or address ethnic and other disparities among different populations (Adams, 5/22).