December 20, 2012
Iowa Receives Three Grants to Further Implementation of Affordable Care Act
Grants will support research, children’s health, and health care coordination
WASHINGTON—Today, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions and the Appropriations subcommittee for health care, announced three grants awarded to Iowa under the provisions of the Affordable Care Act.
“These grants will move Iowa’s health care system forward on three fronts: advancing research on effective care, expanding health insurance coverage for children of low-income families, and developing better systems to coordinate health care and improve patient outcomes,” Harkin said.
The first grant, awarded on a competitive basis to researchers at the University of Iowa, will fund a comparative clinical effectiveness study to examine ways to improve dementia care for rural and Hispanic populations. Nationwide, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute awarded 25 grants totaling $40.7 million to fund research.
The second grant, $11.2 million from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, will allow Iowa to expand outreach to families with Medicaid- and Children’s Health Insurance Program-eligible children, to increase their enrollment in those programs.
The final grant, $400,000 awarded to In ConcertCare, Inc. in Urbandale, Iowa, will support the adoption of certified electronic health record technology and other technology-based strategies to improve care in its network of Federally Qualified Health Centers. The grant was awarded by the Health Resources and Services Administration with funds made available through the Affordable Care Act.