The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) is gathering proposals for a social impact program that will provide incentive payments based on achieving population health outcomes in four project domains. The purpose of the program is to allow public health entities and collaborators to have the opportunity to improve the health status of their communities for specific populations using a payment model that incentivizes community-based interventions to improve health outcomes across a fixed geographic area.
The selected projects will investigate a new, regionally focused, outcomes-based financing approach for the health care industry, which rewards only positive health outcomes and reduces the health care burden on consumers, provider organizations, and the economy. The four project domains are:
- Maternal health: Reduction in rate of intrapartum and postpartum severe obstetric complications per 10,000 deliveries. The overall target is a 20% reduction relative to national averages.
- Heart attack and stroke risk: Reduction in the aggregate 10-year risk of heart attack and stroke for people aged 40 to 70 years. The overall target is a 1% reduction.
- Opioid overdose: Reduction in the rate of emergency medical services (EMS) patient encounters for fatal and non-fatal opioid overdoses per 100,000 population. The overall target is a 10% reduction relative to the national average.
- Alcohol-related health harms: Reduction in the rate of EMS patient encounters for alcohol-related emergencies per 100,000 population. The overall target is a 10% reduction relative to the national average.
The program is called HEalth care Rewards to Achieve Improved OutcomES (HEROES). ARPA-H released a request for proposals (RFP ARPA-H-SOL-24) on April 17, 2024, with solution summaries due by June 28, 2024, and final responses due by November 15, 2024.
Cross-sector collaboratives can submit proposals for one of the four health outcome categories in geographic areas ranging from 500,000 to 5 million people in the general population. The collaboratives can be made up of corporations, investors, health insurers, health service provider organizations, university systems, government agencies, and philanthropy. ARPA-H will contribute up to $15 million in outcomes funding for each selected proposal. The collaboratives will receive ARPA-H funding of $15 million and must generate matching contributions from other local and/or national outcomes buyers and possibly from investors to fund the upfront program costs. Up to $99 million in total funding will be awarded over the three-year program period. The program is are slated to begin in the second quarter of 2025.
The proram concept is presented in “HEalth care Rewards to Achieve Improved OutcomES” by Darshak Sanghavi, M.D., program manager, Resilient Systems Mission Office at ARPA-H. The presentation noted that the health accelerators will propose a high-need geographic region in one of four possible health outcomes. They must serve every person within the selected geographic region. Each health accelerator will need to meet the population-specific goal that has been projected to generate at least $60 million in value to society. The value will include health care costs, productivity changes, and social service costs. Each domain has an overall target and six-month targets.
The health accelerator will secure promises of future payment for successful health outcomes from ARPA-H and outcome buyers (such as employers and health plans). If the target outcome is achieved, ARPA-H and the outcome buyers will reward the health accelerator.
ARPA-H is a federal research funding agency that supports transformative biomedical and health breakthroughs to provide health solutions for all. ARPA-H has been working with Third Sector and Social Finance to provide strategic guidance and technical assistance to ARPA-H as it designs and stands up this new initiative.
The full text of “HEalth care Rewards to Achieve Improved OutcomES Presentation” can be found at the ARPA-H website at https://arpa-h.gov/sites/default/files/2024-01/HEROES%20Public%20Deck%20Focused%201-12-24_FINAL.pdf.
For more information, contact:
- Renee Wegrzyn, Director, Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, National Institutes of Health, 9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, Maryland 20892; Website: https://arpa-h.gov/
- Office of Communications, Third Sector, Post Office Box 962004, Boston, Massachusetts 02196; Email: info@thirdsectorcap.org; Website: https://www.thirdsectorcap.org/