Cincinnati, Detroit named final Beacon pilot communities

HHS Secretary and former Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius. Image source: www.governor.ks.gov

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced Sept. 2 that Cincinnati and Detroit are the two final pilot communities selected under the new Beacon Community Program that is using health IT to help tackle leading health problems in communities across the U.S.

Under the program, the Greater Cincinnati HealthBridge in Ohio and the Southeastern Michigan Health Association (SEMHA) in Detroit will receive $13.8 and $16.2 million over three years, respectively. The two awardees join 15 other projects selected in May for the Beacon Community Cooperative Agreement Program.

The program will allow HHS to look for new ways to share the lessons learned by funded communities, and working with local and national healthcare foundations, develop support networks for other communities that want to employ similar approaches, HHS stated.

Beacon projects are expected to initially create new jobs in each of the communities paying an average of $70,000 per year for a total of more than 1,100 jobs up-front, while accelerating development of a nationwide health IT infrastructure that will eventually employ tens of thousands of Americans, the agency reported.

Like other Beacon communities, the awardees will coordinate community efforts toward specific goals:

• The Greater Cincinnati HealthBridge will serve a 16-county area spanning three states surrounding greater Cincinnati. Under the Beacon program, HealthBridge and its partners will use its health information exchange program to develop new quality improvement and care coordination initiatives focusing on patients with pediatric asthma, adult diabetes and encouraging smoking cessation.
• SEMHA, along with its partners in the greater Detroit area, will use health IT tools and strategies to prevent and better manage diabetes, which today affects a large percentage of city residents. The city’s clinical community will have the capacity to track clinical outcomes with the overarching goal of making sustainable improvements in the quality and efficiency of diabetes care in Detroit, Hamtramck, Highland Park, Dearborn and Dearborn Heights.

The other communities that previously received Beacon program funding include Tulsa, Okla.; Stoneville, Miss.; Brewer, Maine; Danville, Pa.; Salt Lake City; Indianapolis; Spokane, Wash. New Orleans; Rochester, Minn.; Providence, R.I.; Grand Junction, Colo.; Concord, N.C.; San Diego; Hilo, Hawaii and Buffalo, N.Y.

The Beacon program is one of several new programs created by the HITECH Act last year. Total funding for the Beacon program initiatives is $250 million plus an additional $15 million for technical assistance and evaluation, according to HHS.