Health Care Matters | August 21
CMS Launches QualTech to Explore Technology Solutions for Health Care Quality
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has launched QualTech, a new initiative inviting technology companies, academic institutions, nonprofits, and other organizations to propose solutions addressing four quality priorities. The opportunity areas focus on using artificial intelligence (AI) to identify patient safety risks, expanding Medicare Annual Wellness Visits through clinical AI, developing a next-generation digital quality measure calculator, and creating a national hospital quality dashboard. Up to eight finalists will be invited to present their solutions to CMS and Center for Clinical Standards and Quality (CCSQ) leaders in November, with the potential for continued demonstrations or collaboration. QualTech is not a funding or procurement opportunity. Read more here.
Why It Matters
QualTech offers a clearer view into where CMS sees technology playing a role in the next generation of quality improvement. The priorities extend beyond automating existing processes, with an emphasis on using technology to identify risks earlier, making preventive care easier to deliver, reducing the burden of quality measurement, and making performance information more useful to patients and providers. The initiative also creates a more direct channel for CMS to learn from technology developers before formal procurement or policy decisions are made. While participation does not guarantee adoption, the solutions CMS chooses to advance could provide an early signal of how the agency intends to modernize quality oversight and reporting in the years ahead.
CMS Moves Nursing Home Workforce Incentive Program Closer to Implementation
CMS has established a new system of records for its Nurses for Nursing Homes Program, signaling continued progress toward launching the workforce initiative. The program is designed to recruit and retain registered nurses and licensed practical or vocational nurses in eligible Medicare- and Medicaid-certified nursing homes, with a focus on rural and underserved communities. Participating nurses may receive student loan repayment or incentive stipends in exchange for a service commitment, with payments made quarterly. CMS has not yet released detailed criteria for how nursing homes will qualify for participation. Read more here and here.
Why It Matters
Nursing homes continue to face persistent workforce challenges, particularly in rural and underserved areas where recruiting and retaining nurses can be difficult. Rather than setting another staffing requirement, this initiative would use direct financial incentives to strengthen the workforce available to facilities, potentially helping address one of the underlying constraints on access and quality. The new administrative infrastructure suggests CMS is moving from program design toward implementation, but important questions remain about which facilities will qualify, how nurses will be matched to participating organizations, and whether the incentives will be large and sustained enough to meaningfully affect recruitment and retention.
Look for the Helpers: Bringing Medical Education Closer to the Communities That Need Physicians Most
The University of Arizona and Gila River Health Care are launching the nation’s first MD-granting medical school branch located within a sovereign Tribal Nation. Beginning in 2027, students in the accelerated primary care program will receive full tuition scholarships and complete much of their clinical training within the Gila River Indian Community. The partnership is designed to create stronger pathways into medicine while helping more physicians train, build relationships, and ultimately practice in Tribal, rural, and medically underserved communities. Read here.
What We're Attending
Funding, Politics, and Proof: From Need to Value
September 29, 2026 | 12:00–2:00 p.m. ET
The Johns Hopkins Lerner Center for Public Health Advocacy will host the final session in its Funding, Politics, and Proof series, focused on helping public health professionals make a stronger case for investment when resources are limited. The session will cover engaging decision-makers, translating data into clear value propositions, and using financial and economic concepts to support advocacy. Register here.
AIxPH: 1st Annual Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Public Health
October 14–16, 2026 | Baltimore, MD
The National Network of Public Health Institutes will bring together public health practitioners, technologists, community-based organizations, researchers, and policymakers to explore how artificial intelligence is shaping public health. The conference will focus on how organizations can responsibly use AI while preparing for its potential risks and broader effects on population health. Register here.
What We Are Reading
The Great Repositioning: Health Plans Are Redrawing the Map of Value-Based Care
A VBC OneSource article examines how health plans are restructuring their value-based care strategies as market pressures push them to rethink partnerships, risk arrangements, and where they invest. Read here.
Creating a Continuum of Care for Dual-Eligible Individuals
A Health Affairs Forefront article argues for organizing Dual-Eligible Special Needs Plans, PACE, and Institutional Special Needs Plans as a more connected continuum that can adapt as beneficiaries’ clinical and functional needs change. Read here.
Costco to Enter Medicare Advantage Market Through SCAN Partnership
Becker’s Payer Issues reports on Costco and SCAN Health Plan’s plans to launch co-branded Medicare products and integrate coverage with Costco’s existing pharmacy and health offerings. Read here.
Hopscotch Raises $53M to Expand Rural Primary Care Beyond North Carolina
Fierce Healthcare reports on Hopscotch Primary Care’s $53 million funding round to expand its value-based primary care model into additional rural communities beyond North Carolina. Read here
CMS Pullback on Medicaid 1115 Waivers Raises Concerns for States
Modern Healthcare examines how a more restrictive federal approach to Section 1115 demonstrations could affect state budgets, provider finances, and states’ ability to test Medicaid delivery and financing reforms. Read here.
Pop Health Podcast
Moving AI Into Practice: Lessons from Beth Israel Lahey Health
Artificial intelligence has no shortage of potential applications in health care, but deciding where to begin and how to implement it responsibly is another matter. Rob Fields, MD, MHA, Executive Vice President and Chief Clinical Officer at Beth Israel Lahey Health, joins Coral Founder Meg Koepke to discuss how the health system is putting AI into practice. Their conversation explores the organization’s rollout of ambient clinical documentation, the results and responses it has seen so far, and what leaders are learning about selecting use cases, supporting adoption, engaging patients, and managing change.