�鶹Ů��

The Obama administration is announcing an $840 million grant program to help doctors and hospitals improve the quality of care delivered to patients. Patrick Conway, Medicare’s chief medical officer, said Thursday the goal is to identify ways of delivering care that improves results for patients, and then rapidly foster the spread of those ideas throughout the system. The administration also hopes at least some approaches will save money. (10/23)

With an estimated 25 million new people becoming insured over the next few years, a coalition of family physicians has a message for the country: Don't forget about us. The timing is right for the group, which on Thursday announced a five-year, $20 million campaign aimed at promoting the importance of primary care. The flood of newly insured patients presents a big opportunity for primary care doctors, when you consider this: just one-third of uninsured adults said they have a regular doctor, about half the rate of the insured population, according to a 2013 Kaiser Family Foundation survey. (Millman, 10/23)

HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell asked family physicians Thursday for their help with lowering costs and improving quality while offering $840 million in grants to help them figure out how to do that. “We want to partner with those who are working to improve the coordination of care — both inside and outside their offices,” said Burwell, explaining the new initiative. “And we intend to build networks of clinicians who learn best practices from each other and build new networks.” (Wheaton, 10/23)

A bipartisan pair of senators is putting together a proposal to significantly increase federal funding for biomedical research, an issue that has taken on greater urgency in light of the Ebola outbreak. Aides to Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) and Orrin Hatch of Utah, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, met with industry representatives this week to discuss their plan to boost funding for biomedical research by $1 billion annually over 10 years, according to people familiar with the discussion. (Peterson and Armour, 10/23)