The Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation has received a CMS Accountable Health Communities grant from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The $4.5 million grant is designed to address large cost drivers in healthcare.

In May, PCCI will begin a five-year data collection period as part of the grant’s Assistance and Alignment Tracks of the Accountable Health Communities model. PCCI is one of 32 participating sites in 23 states and the only one in North Texas.

Ted Shaw, chair of the PCCI board of directors, said the center will use the grant to “utilize the innovative and transformational capabilities of PCCI in an effort to reduce health disparities in the North Texas region and across the nation.”

In addition to addressing large healthcare cost drivers, the grant is designed to address unmet health-related social needs—like food insecurity and inadequate or unstable housing—that affect chronic healthcare problems in Dallas-Fort Worth.

The AHC model will test innovative service delivery models and track screenings of Medicaid and Medicare beneficiaries at risk for emergency department visits to see if the new models can reduce expenditures and enhance care.

PCCI was awarded the AHC’s “alignment track,” which is the most intensive study-level and includes screening, education, referral, navigation, and alignment of community resources to ensure responsiveness to high-risk beneficiaries’ needs.

PCCI will be partnering with five healthcare providers in DFW—Parkland, Methodist, Children’s, Baylor, Dallas Metrocare—as well as 289 community-based organizations and Texas Medicaid to design, implement, and evaluate this track.